THE  LIFE  OF 
THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 


\ 


THE  LIFE  OF 
THOMAS  BKACKETT  SEED 

BY 

SAMUEL  W.  McCALL 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
Cambriti0e 


COPYRIGHT,   1914,   BY  SAMUEL  W.    MCCALL 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  December  1^14 


PREFACE 

IT  is  inevitable  that  one  writing  the  Life  of  Thomas 
B.  Reed  should  be  drawn  into  a  discussion  of  the  most 
important  questions  before  Congress  during  his  long 
period  of  service;  yet  I  have  made  the  consideration  of 
them  entirely  secondary  to  the  recording  of  his  course 
upon  them,  and  have  endeavored  to  permit  him  to 
present  his  own  view  in  his  speeches,  letters,  and  other 
writings.  The  great  questions  before  the  country  while 
he  was  in  Congress  were  the  Southern  and  race  issues, 
the  Greenback  and  silver  questions,  the  procedure 
of  the  House  (and  especially  obstruction),  and  civil- 
service  reform  and  the  settlement  of  the  monetary 
standard.  Through  perhaps  half  of  the  Congresses 
there  was  a  dead  level  of  routine  legislation,  hardly 
relieved,  although  accompanied  by  the  perennial  dis 
cussion  of  the  tariff.  This  routine,  while  not  appeal 
ing  to  the  imagination,  presents  much  of  importance 
in  the  development  of  the  country  and  the  shaping 
of  its  practical  processes  of  government,  and  it  cannot 
be  neglected. 

Reed  was  the  most  powerful  figure  in  either  House 
of  Congress  during  his  time,  or  at  least  after  he  had  op 
portunity  to  establish  himself  as  he  did  in  the  first  few 
years  of  his  service;  and  his  contribution  to  the  settle 
ment  of  every  great  issue  before  the  country  was  in- 


vi  PREFACE 

fluential  in  a  high  degree.  He  firmly  believed  in  pro 
tection  as  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  in 
peace  and  its  independence  in  war.  He  favored  reform 
in  the  civil  service  and  was  opposed  to  inflation,  to  the 
free  coinage  of  silver,  and  to  the  settled  policy  of  ob 
struction  which  for  more  than  a  century  had  been 
carried  on  under  the  rules  of  the  House.  He  himself  in 
his  first  Speakership  overthrew  that  obstruction  by  his 
famous  ruling;  and  when  he  had  been  retired  to  the 
minority  and  the  ancient  system  had  been  restored,  he 
himself  put  it  in  practice  so  aggressively  as  to  prevent 
the  transaction  of  all  business  and  to  compel  his  ad 
versaries  to  abandon  it.  Ever  since  that  time  the  prin 
ciple  of  his  ruling  has  been  accepted  by  all  parties  as  the 
law  of  the  House. 

He  was  an  unyielding  advocate  of  equality  of  rights 
for  all  citizens,  and  steadily  maintained  the  principles 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  chief  reason 
for  his  retirement  from  the  Speakership  and  from  pub 
lic  life  was  the  annexation,  against  his  protest,  of  over 
sea  territory,  imposing  as  it  did  upon  ourselves  the  ne 
cessity  of  violating  that  principle  of  self-government 
which  he  believed  to  be  the  foundation  principle  of  the 
American  Commonwealth. 

In  my  quotations  from  the  official  reports  of  debates 
I  have  as  a  rule  preserved  the  expressions  of  approval 
or  disapproval  on  the  part  of  the  House,  believing  that 
they  possess  a  real  historical  value.  Reed,  it  need  hardly 
be  said,  was  altogether  above  the  petty  practice, 
which  I  regret  to  say  has  found  some  currency  in  the 


PREFACE  vii 

House  of  Representatives,  of  editing  the  reports  of  his 
speeches  by  inserting  "Applause"  and  "Laughter"  in 
the  printed  version,  —  a  practice  which  has  made 
the  House  appear  to  be  a  very  stupid  sort  of  body,  go 
ing  wild  with  enthusiasm  over  eloquence  the  cheapest 
and  most  fustian,  and  convulsed  with  "laughter"  over 
jokes  the  point  of  which  years  of  subsequent  study 
have  failed  to  disclose.  Indeed  Reed  had  the  reputa 
tion  of  not  even  revising  the  reporter's  notes  in  order 
to  correct  the  little  slips  and  errors  that  will  inevitably 
creep  into  reports  of  speeches  made  in  a  body  like  the 
House. 

Mrs.  Reed  and  her  daughter  Katherine  Reed  Balen- 
tine  have  placed  me  under  very  great  obligation  by 
giving  me  free  access  to  the  family  papers,  and  in  other 
ways.  I  am  also  much  indebted  to  Reed's  son-in-law, 
Captain  Arthur  T.  Balentine.  Honorable  Asher  C. 
Hinds,  who  was  Reed's  close  friend,  and  his  parliamen 
tary  clerk,  and  who  now  represents  the  Portland  dis 
trict  in  Congress,  has  given  me  much  help  in  many 
ways,  especially  by  advice  and  by  putting  his  wide 
and  valuable  collection  of  material  at  my  disposal. 

SAMUEL  W.  McCALL. 

WINCHESTER,  MASS., 
November  6,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

I.  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH     .      .     v.      .      .      .  i 

II.  COLLEGE 14 

III.  THE  NAVY  —  EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER       .  30 

IV.  FIRST  SERVICE  IN  CONGRESS      ....  45 
V.  THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION       ....  59 

VI.  REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  —  His    PROGRESS 

TOWARDS  LEADERSHIP 76 

VII.  THE  GREENBACK   ISSUE  —  RELATIONS  WITH 

BLAINE 84 

VIII.  WINNING  LEADERSHIP  —  SUFFRAGE  FOR  WO 
MEN  —  GENEVA  AWARD  DISTRIBUTIONS     .    93 

IX.  ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE 114 

X.  NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER    ...      .      .      .  129 

XI.   SOCIAL  LIFE  —  DIVERSIONS 143 

XII.  RULES  — THE  MILLS  BILL 152 

XIII.  SPEAKER  —  THE  QUORUM 162 

XIV.  THE  SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE  BILL   .      .173 
XV.  AGAIN     MINORITY     LEADER  —  RELATIONS 

WITH  PRESIDENT  HARRISON     .      .      .      /184 

XVI.  SILVER-PURCHASE  REPEAL 191 

XVII.  THE  WILSON  BILL 197 

XVIII.  THE    QUORUM    RULING    VINDICATED  —  THE 

MORGAN  GOLD  CONTRACT  .  .211 


x  CONTENTS 

XIX.   THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP 217 

XX.   WAR  —  THE  PHILIPPINES 231 

XXI.   WRITINGS  —  WIT  —  CHARACTERISTICS    AS    A 

LEADER  AND  DEBATER 240 

XXII.   LAW   PRACTICE  —  BOWDOIN   SPEECH  —  LAST 

DAYS 261 

INDEX .  279 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED  (Photogravure]  .      .  Frontispiece 
From  a  photograph  in  1896  by  Parker,  Washington,  D.C. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  SENIOR,  1803-1888     .      .      4 

From  a  photograph  in  the  Portland  Historical  Society. 

MRS.  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  SENIOR  (MATHILDA 
MITCHELL) 4 

From  a  photograph  by  Lamson. 

BIRTHPLACE  OF  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  PORTLAND, 
MAINE 6 

From  a  photograph. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1852 8 

From  a  daguerreotype. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1853 10 

From  the  drawing  by  Franklin  Simmons.    Made  when  he 
and  Mr.  Reed  were  in  school  together  in  Portland. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1860 26 

From  his  Class  Album,  Bowdoin  College. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1864,  WHILE  PAYMASTER  IN 

THE  UNITED  STATES  NAVY 32 

From  a  photograph  by  A.  M.  McKenney. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1871,  WHILE  IN  THE  MAINE 
LEGISLATURE 36 

From  a  photograph  by  Lamson. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1876,   WHEN   ELECTED  TO 
CONGRESS 46 

From  a  photograph  by  Lamson. 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

MR.  REED'S  HOME,  DEERING  STREET,  PORTLAND  .      .148 

THE  GAVELS  USED  BY  MR.  REED  AS  SPEAKER  .  .170 
The  one  in  the  centre  was  used,  and  had  the  handle  broken 
during  the  exciting  period  when  Mr.  Reed  made  his  ruling 
in  regard  to  counting  a  quorum,  during  the  Fifty-first 
Congress.  The  upper  one,  presented  to  Mr.  Reed  by  the 
Hamilton  Club,  of  Chicago,  in  1895,  is  inscribed, "As  too 
much  power  leads  to  despotism,  too  little  leads  to  an 
archy."  The  two  on  either  side  were  used  by  Mr.  Reed,  as 
Speaker,  during  the  Fifty-fourth  and  Fifty-fifth  Sessions 
of  Congress. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1894 198 

From  a  photograph  by  Elmer  Chickering. 

"THE  CZAR" 218 

From  "Cartoons"  by  Homer  C.  Davenport. 

CLIMBING  MOUNT  HAMILTON,   CALIFORNIA,   1896     .  226 
Mr.  Reed  sits  beside  the  driver. 
From  a  photograph. 

AT  MONTICELLO,  1897 228 

Mr.  Reed  in  the  centre,  Senator  Hoar  on  his  right,  Sena 
tor  Jones,  of  Arkansas,  on  his  left. 
From  a  photograph. 

Two  DAVENPORT  CARTOONS:  A  HUGE  JOKE:  THREE 

MINUTES  WITH  THE  SPEAKER 236 

From  "Cartoons"  by  Homer  C.  Davenport. 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1896 246 

From  a  photograph  by  Parker,  Washington,  D.C. 

MRS.    THOMAS    BRACKETT    REED  (SUSAN  PRENTICE 
MERRILL) 246 

From  a  photograph  in  1896  by  Stalle,  Washington,  D.C. 

FACSIMILE    OF    A    LETTER,   HTH    NOVEMBER,   1900, 
THOMAS  B.  REED  TO  HON.  SAMUEL  W.  McCALL .  256 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

FACSIMILE  OF  AN  ETCHING  BY  "MARK  TWAIN"  .      .  262 

ON  THE  YACHT  "KANAWHA"  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES  .  264 
H.  H.  Rogers.  Laurence  Button. 

Samuel  L.  Clemens.  Thomas  B.  Reed. 

C.  C.  Rice.  A.  G.  Paine. 

From  a  photograph  by  W.  T.  Foote,  Jr.,  M.C.  from  New 

York,  who  was  one  of  the  guests. 

AT  BRUNSWICK,  MAINE,  IN  1902 270 

At  the  House  of  Parker  C.  Chandler. 
President  William  De  W.  Hyde,  of  Bowdoin,  Thomas  B. 
Reed,  Parker  C.  Chandler,  Miss  Hubbard,  Miss  Chandler, 
Chief  Justice  Melville  Weston  Fuller,  General  O.  O.  How 
ard,  Miss  Katherine  Reed  (now  Mrs.  Arthur  T.  Balentine). 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED,  1901 272 

From  a  photograph  by  Hollenger,  New  York. 

THE  PORTLAND  STATUE  BY  BURR  CHURCHILL  MILLER  274 
From  a  photograph  by  Adams. 

THOMAS  REED  BALENTINE,  HELD  BY  HIS  MOTHER, 
MRS.  ARTHUR  T.  BALENTINE,  IN  THE  ACT  OF  UN 
VEILING  HIS  GRANDFATHER'S  STATUE  AT  PORTLAND, 
MAINE,  IN  1910 276 


THE  LIFE  OF 
THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 


THE  LIFE  OF 
THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

CHAPTER  I 

BOYHOOD   AND   YOUTH 

THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED  was  born  in  Portland, 
Maine,  October  18,  1839.  He  does  not  appear  to  have 
given  himself  any  special  concern  about  the  character 
of  his  remote  ancestors,  apparently  thinking  that, 
whether  they  were  good  or  bad,  it  was  beyond  his 
power  to  change  them,  and  accepting  the  responsibility 
of  making  the  most  of  himself  as  he  happened  to  be, 
without  regard  to  their  faults  or  virtues.  His  utter 
ances  upon  the  subject  were  usually  in  a  light  vein  and 
are  consistent  with  a  mild  indifference  toward  ancestor- 
worship  as  an  established  form  of  religion.  In  a  little 
speech  which  he  made  in  1902,  at  the  centennial  of  the 
town  of  York,  he  said  that  his  ancestors  came  from 
York.  He  had  hard  work  to  discover,  he  said,  that 
they  ever  existed,  and  certainly  they  held  no  position 
of  great  emolument,  judging  from  his  own  financial 
condition  when  he  arrived.  He  was  interested  in  the 
report  that  one  of  his  great-grandmothers  had  lived  to 
the  age  of  one  hundred  and  thirteen  years,  and  took 
pains  to  verify  it.  Evidently  referring  to  Lydia  Ware 


2  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Reed,  the  mother  of  his  grandfather  Joseph  Reed,  he 
wrote  in  a  letter  dated  September  19,  1883:  "I  dis 
covered  that  she  lived  in  Eliot  —  but  died  in  the  prime 
of  life  at  ninety-eight.  I  found  that  she  was  the  great- 
granddaughter  of  Peter  Ware,  known  as  a  stout  citizen 
of  York  in  the  days  when  the  Indians  made  the  block 
houses  much  sought  after  by  the  judicious." 

But  Reed's  ancestors  were  of  sterling  stock  in  every 
line.  They  were  identified  with  the  important  coloniza 
tions  of  New  England  from  the  times  when  they  were 
first  planted.  His  original  ancestor  in  this  country,  of 
the  name  of  Reed,  —  or  rather  Reade,  as  the  form  of 
the  name  then  was,  —  was  born  in  England.  The  his 
torian  of  the  Reade  family  in  America  indulges  in  the 
conjecture  that  this  ancestor  was  the  son  of  Sir  Thomas 
and  Mary  Cornwall  Reade  of  Brocket  Hall,  Hertford 
shire.  In  1630,  while  he  was  yet  a  young  boy,  he  came 
to  America  in  the  great  fleet  with  Governor  Winthrop, 
and  settled  in  Salem.  This  boy,  named  Thomas  Reade, 
grew  up  to  be  a  man  of  considerable  importance  in 
Salem,  where  he  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land,  and  to 
this  possession  he  added  three  hundred  acres  which  he 
acquired  near  Cape  Prosper  in  1662.  He  also  rejoiced 
in  the  title  of  "Colonel,"  which,  however,  then  as  now, 
may  have  been  compatible  with  pursuits  entirely 
peaceful  on  the  part  of  its  possessor. 

Jacob  Reed,  the  son  of  this  Thomas,  moved  to 
Kittery,  Maine,  but  afterwards  returned  to  Salem.  All 
of  Reed's  ancestors  of  his  name,  succeeding  Jacob,  were 
identified  with  Maine.  His  grandfather,  Joseph  Reed, 


BOYHOOD  AND   YOUTHT  3 

to  whom  reference  has  already  been  made,  was  born  in 
York  in  1770,  and  reached  the  age  of  eighty-two  years. 
Joseph  married  Mary  Brackett,  who  was  a  descendant 
in  the  fifth  generation  from  the  real  founder  of  the 
Colony,  George  Cleve.  Mary  Brackett  inherited  a  con 
siderable  property,  and  this,  with  the  proceeds  from 
the  sale  of  some  farms  owned  by  her  husband,  sup 
ported  them  in  comfort  in  their  old  age.  She  survived 
her  husband  about  eight  years  and  attained  the  age  of 
eighty -four.  The  records  of  the  Reed  and  Brackett 
families  show  a  high  mortality  on  account  of  the  In 
dian  wars.  Those  not  killed  by  the  Indians  usually 
lived  to  a  great  age. 

Among  the  children  of  this  union  was  Reed's  father, 
for  whom  he  was  named,  Thomas  Brackett  Reed,  born 
in  1803.  Reed's  father  married  for  a  second  wife,  Ma 
thilda  Mitchell,  who  is  described  as  a  woman  of  much 
intelligence  and  beauty  and  of  a  deeply  religious  na 
ture,  known  for  her  charitable  deeds.  Reed  was  the 
first  child  of  this  marriage.  It  was  from  his  mother  that 
he  inherited  his  good  looks.  Mathilda  was  descended 
from  Experience  Mitchell,  who  landed  at  Plymouth  in 
1623,  and  who  married  Jane  Cook,  one  of  the  company 
of  the  Mayflower.  Thus  there  was  blended  in  Reed  the 
blood  of  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan. 

Others  of  his  ancestral  lines  led  directly  to  those 
who  had  mastered  most  incredible  difficulties  and 
laid  the  foundations  of  Maine. 

The  Portland  Colony,  the  Province  of  Lygonia  as  it 
was  called,  was  really  established  by  George  Cleve. 


4  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Reed  said  of  Cleve  in  his  speech  at  the  Portland  Cen 
tennial,  in  1886,  that  where  he  "was  born,  where  he 
lived  before  he  came  from  England,  or  where  his  bones 
now  rest,  no  one  of  his  unnumbered  descendants  knows 
to-day."  But  there  is  no  obscurity  about  the  master 
ful  way  in  which  Cleve  bore  himself  when  he  first 
landed  in  1632,  and  later  for  nearly  a  score  of  years 
during  which  he  remained  the  master-spirit  of  the 
Province  and  during  a  portion  of  the  time  was  its 
Governor.  By  tact  and  diplomacy  he  maintained  him 
self  against  powerful  antagonists  both  in  England  and 
America,  and,  as  Reed  declared,  "His  enemies  were 
never  victorious  except  in  his  extreme  old  age." 

It  was  one  of  the  most  statesman-like  achievements 
of  Cleve  that  he  secured  from  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges 
the  approval  of  a  plan  for  the  union  of  New  England 
wrhich  would  probably  have  permanently  joined  New 
Hampshire  and  Maine  to  Massachusetts.  Some  inter 
esting  history  was  spoiled  in  the  making  when  Win- 
throp  refused  to  accept  the  plan.  But  the  long-slum 
bering  claim  of  Massachusetts  to  Maine  was  at  last 
sternly  asserted,  and  the  little  colony  had  no  alterna 
tive  but  to  submit.  In  1652  the  Commissioners  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  came  to  York  and  declared  that 
Massachusetts  thenceforth  was  to  govern  Maine.  A 
cage,  a  whipping-post,  a  ducking-stool,  and  a  pair  of 
stocks,  wrere  set  up  as  the  awful  emblems  of  the  new 
authority.  It  is  profitless  to  speculate  upon  what 
might  have  happened  had  Winthrop  accepted  the 
plan  proposed  by  Cleve.  But  it  was  destined  again  to 


J 

?H    O 

CO     "^ 

oo  C5 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  5 

be  shown  that  force  is  not  the  most  enduring  basis  of 
union.  Whether  it  was  that  the  blood  of  the  Common 
wealth  did  not  surge  warmly  across  the  narrow  strip  of 
New  Hampshire  which  separated  her  from  her  prov 
ince,  and  that  she  regarded  the  latter  with  something 
of  a  stepmother's  love,  or  whether  the  memory  of  the 
early  conflict  lingered  and  Maine  never  quite  regarded 
herself  as  an  integral  part  of  Massachusetts,  the  con 
nection  asserted  with  a  threat  of  force  in  those  early 
times  did  not  prove  to  be  permanent.1 

The  settlements  at  Plymouth  and  Salem  and  that 
upon  the  shores  of  Casco  Bay  were  made  by  the  same 
race.  While  the  Maine  colony  is  the  least  known  to 
fame,  yet  in  the  genius  for  colonization  and  for  estab 
lishing  orderly  government  in  the  wilderness,  and  in 
the  heroism  with  which  it  encountered  danger,  it  was 
quite  the  equal  of  either  of  the  other  two.  Instead  of 
running  generally  to  the  north  and  south  as  at  Salem 
and  Plymouth,  the  seacoast  upon  which  George  Cleve 
planted  the  Portland  Colony  spreads  more  nearly  from 
east  to  west.  Thus  the  cold,  great  enough  where  the 
colonists  raised  their  first  habitations,  increased  as 
they  moved  inland.  They  were  shut  in  on  the  one  side 
by  the  ocean  and  on  the  other  by  the  almost  impene 
trable  forest  which  stretched  to  the  settlements  about 
Quebec.  For  the  possession  of  the  forest  they  were 
compelled  to  contend,  not  merely  against  the  extreme 
cold  but  against  the  French  and  the  Indians.  Indeed, 

1  See  James  G.  Elaine's  speech  in  the  Senate,  January  22, 1878,  on 
the  presentation  of  the  statue  of  William  King. 


6  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  latter  disputed  with  them  the  right  to  inhabit  even 
the  narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  sea,  and  more  than 
once  during  the  first  century  of  its  existence,  Portland 
was  ravaged  by  fire,  the  greater  number  of  its  inhabi 
tants  captured  or  tomahawked,  and  the  settlement 
almost  obliterated.  But  the  colony  persisted,  steadily 
grew,  and  finally  developed  into  a  state  exercising  a 
potential  influence  in  the  government  of  the  nation. 

Through  his  mother  Reed  was  descended  from  the 
Wares  and  the  Buchnams,  who  rendered  important 
service  and  some  of  whom  were  killed  in  the  Indian 
wars.  Another  ancestor  was  with  Paul  Jones  in  that 
most  brilliant  of  all  sea-fights,  in  which  the  Serapis 
was  captured.4 

It  is,  I  imagine,  more  profitable  to  consider  the  gen 
eral  circumstances  or  characteristics  of  a  colony  or  a 
race  than  to  find  here  and  there  in  an  ancestry  some 
notable  achievement  by  an  individual.  History  mov 
ing  upon  a  high  moral  and  heroic  level,  like  that  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  of  the  Puritan  and  Portland  settlements, 
will  inevitably  flower  out  in  the  production  of  splendid 
names.  There  is  commonly  more  or  less  of  accident 
to  individual  fame,  and  in  its  making,  environment, 
opportunity,  and  chance  play  a  great  part.  The  ap 
pearance  of  the  deed  itself  is  often  deceptive  and  in  its 
achievement  unknown  heroes  may  have  had  a  greater 
share  than  the  one  with  whose  name  it  is  especially 
identified.  But  where  a  small  community  of  men  are 
undaunted  by  extreme  hardships,  where  they  persist 
in  maintaining  themselves  although  surrounded  by 


BIRTHPLACE  OF  THOMAS  B.  REED,  PORTLAND,  MAINE 


BOYHOOD   AND   YOUTH  7 

grave  dangers,  where  difficulties  are  so  oppressive  that 
each  man  must  show  himself  of  the  heroic  texture  of 
the  state  itself,  and  where,  under  most  adverse  condi 
tions,  they  display  a  devotion  to  liberty  and  to  the  or 
derly  sway  of  law,  and  keep  their  little  commonwealth 
upon  a  lofty  plane,  —  from  such  fertile  soil  men  are 
likely  to  spring  fitted  to  contend  with  the  gravest 
crises  which  may  come  upon  a  nation. 

The  father  of  Reed,  like  his  father  before  him,  fol 
lowed  the  sea.  He  was  a  deep-sea  sailor,  served  as  mate 
upon  several  ships  in  the  coasting  trade,  and  was  after 
wards  the  captain  of  various  packets,  plying  between 
Boston  and  the  Maine  coast.  Of  one  of  them,  the 
Frances,  he  was  apparently  the  owner.  He  was  fairly 
well-to-do,  although  he  does  not  seem  to  have  accumu 
lated  much  property.  The  house  in  which  his  son  was 
born,  and  which  may  yet  be  seen  only  a  few  paces 
from  the  Longfellow  house,'  would  indicate  some  de 
gree  of  prosperity.  He  had  a  happy  faculty  for  telling 
stories  and  he  used  to  employ  it  to  the  delight  of  the 
children.1  Reed  and  his  father  were  upon  excellent 
terms  and  appeared  to  be  boon  companions.  The 

1  Hon.  Amos  L.  Allen,  who  was  secretary  to  Reed  during  his 
speakership  and  afterwards  succeeded  him  in  Congress,  is  my  au 
thority  for  the  following:  One  day  when  Reed  was  Speaker  there 
arrived  a  picture  of  the  house  in  which  he  was  born.  "That  is  a 
pretty  good-looking  house  to  be  born  in,"  Mr.  Allen  said  to  him.  To 
which  Reed  replied,  "But  I  was  n't  born  in  the  whole  house,  Amos; 
I  was  only  born  in  that  end  of  it  ";  alluding  to  the  fact  that  the  house 
had  had  an  addition  at  one  of  the  ends.  "Well,  that  end  of  it  would 
be  a  good-looking  house  to  be  born  in,"  persisted  Mr.  Allen.  "But  I 
was  n't  born  in  the  whole  end  of  it,  Amos,"  said  the  Speaker,  "I  was 
only  born  in  two  or  three  of  the  upper  rooms." 


8  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

father  proved  his  devotion  to  his  son  by  mortgaging 
his  house  to  send  him  to  college. 

The  Portland  of  the  time  of  Reed's  birth  was  a  small 
city  with  a  population  of  about  fifteen  thousand 
people.  It  had  maintained  a  slow  but  steady  growth, 
and  the  increase  it  received  from  outside  its  own 
limits  came  chiefly  from  the  other  portions  of  Maine. 
The  intelligence  of  its  people  had  given  it  a  stand 
ing  among  American  cities  quite  out  of  keeping  with 
their  number  —  a  distinction  which  it  still  enjoys. 
At  the  time  of  Reed's  boyhood  there  was  probably  no 
other  city  in  the  world  more  purely  of  British  stock. 

The  boys  of  Portland  in  Reed's  youth  apparently  led 
a  rather  strenuous  life.  Writing  of  those  of  a  some 
what  later  time,  he  said:  "Boys  do  not  do  much  of 
anything  nowadays.  They  are  much  more  comfortable 
to  get  along  with.  Now  they  are  civilized,  but  they 
have  lost  much  on  the  score  of  picturesqueness.  — 
Doubtless  there  are  still  gleams  of  old-time  savagery, 
which  lighten  up  the  home  circle  and  cheer  the  hearts 
of  mothers,  but  the  boy  as  a  public  institution  no 
longer  thrills  the  heart  and  engrosses  the  mind."  He 
classified  the  boys  of  his  day  as  the  "Brackett  Street 
boys,"  the  "Center-Streeters,  and  on  the  banks  of 
Back  Cove  dwelt  the  Christian  Shorers.  —  Beyond 
them,  in  the  unknown  regions  about  Munjoy  Hill,  were 
savage  and  warlike  tribes  of  whom  we  did  not  even 
know  the  names."  In  the  good  old  days  one  "could 
as  easily  have  marched  to  the  Pacific  coast  as  from 
Brackett  Street  to  Munjoy  Hill."  And  then  follows 


THOMAS   E.    REED,  1852 


BOYHOOD  AND   YOUTH  9 

an  account  of  the  ambuscades  and  feuds  between  "the 
tribes." 

The  Fourth  of  July  was  the  one  day  of  the  year 
given  over  to  the  boy.  "All  other  days  in  the  year  he 
took  a  back  seat,  cowered  in  the  darkness,  or  did  his 
deeds  of  disorder  behind  fences  or  haystacks  or  in 
barns  or  sheds;  but  on  the  Fourth  of  July  he  came  out 
openly  and  flouted  the  good  citizens.  —  What  guns  we 
used  to  use  and  what  pistols !  No  boy  to-day  who  loves 
life  would  dare  to  hold  one  in  his  hands  unloaded.  — 
My  first  celebration  cost  my  father  five  cents.  It 
does  n't  really  seem  much.  But  in  those  earlier  and 
better  days  of  the  Republic  thirst  could  be  slaked 
several  times  at  the  fountain  of  root-beer,  and  the 
boy  with  five  cents  could  buy  round  cakes  two  for  a 
cent,  and  see  the  big  boys  touch  off  crackers,  and  once 
in  a  while  a  great  big  boy,  some  princely  fellow,  would 
even  let  you  pop  off  one  of  his  all  by  yourself  and  for 
nothing.  Ten  of  them  could  be  bought  for  a  cent.  The 
only  trouble  was,  which  wild  extravagance  was  to  be 
indulged  in.  No  five-cent  boy  could  have  them  all." 

Reed's  early  education  was  obtained  in  the  Portland 
schools,  and  chiefly  in  the  Boys'  High  School,  which  was 
a  very  good  institution  and  gave  its  students  a  thor* 
ough  preparation  for  college.  The  head  of  the  school. 
Master  Lyford,  was  a  remarkable  teacher,  judging 
from  the  testimony  of  very  eminent  men  who  had  been 
his  pupils.  Many  years  after  his  Portland  school  days 
Reed  wrote  a  letter  to  Lyford  in  which  he  paid  this 
tribute  to  his  old  teacher:  — 


10  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

That  I  was  for  five  and  a  half  years  under  your  charge 
when  you  were  master  of  the  Boys'  High  School,  I  have  long 
thought  the  greatest  good  fortune  of  my  life.  —  My  experi 
ence  under  other  teachers  and  as  a  teacher  myself  has  in 
creased  the  admiration  with  which  I  remember  by  what 
means  you  reduced  a  hundred  turbulent  boys  to  the  most 
systematic,  thoroughly  governed  school  which  I  ever  saw  or 
of  which  I  ever  read.  At  a  time  when  corporal  punishment 
was  the  standby  of  the  best  masters,  you  accomplished  your 
work  without  a  single  blow,  by  sheer  force  of  character.  If  a 
boy  had  honor  or  ambition  in  him,  you  knew  how  to  make 
successful  appeal  to  it.  While  you  had  accomplished  assist 
ants,  it  was  the  universal  sentiment  that  no  explanations 
were  ever  so  clear  and  luminous  as  yours.  You  made  us 
understand.  You  never  let  us  go  away  with  half  knowledge. 
I  do  not  believe  that  any  hundred  boys  in  the  world  ever  did 
so  much  work,  the  results  of  which  [persevered?]  as  did  the 
boys  of  the  High  School  when  you  were  master. 

I  am  glad  to  have  a  chance  to  say  this  to  you;  for  while  we 
have  hardly  met  for  all  these  years,  I  have  long  cherished  an 
esteem  for  you  of  which  what  I  have  Written  is  only  a  slight 
expression. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  course  in  the  High  School 
Reed  seems  to  have  shown  the  indifference  to  study 
which  was  to  be  expected  of  a  young  and  fast-growing 
boy,  but  one  of  his  classmates,  who  afterwards  won 
distinction,  speaks  of  the  time  when  Reed  "  seemed  to 
awake  from  his  listlessness  as  from  a  dream.  From 
that  time  on  he  never  wasted  a  minute,  but  mastered 
thoroughly  everything  that  was  set  for  him  to  do."  l 

Although  the  instruction  was  excellent  the  school 
was  badly  housed.  One  of  Reed's  schoolboy  composi 
tions,  probably  written  when  he  was  fifteen  years  old, 

1  Letter  of  John  W.  Symonds. 


THOMAS   B.    REED,  1853 


BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH  11 

denounced  the  building  as  "a  disgrace  to  the  city," 
and  presented  a  plea  for  a  new  one.  "The  great 
triumph  of  the  building,"  he  declared,  was  its  appara 
tus  for  heating.  The  larger  room  had  but  one  stove 
which  was  in  a  corner  near  the  entrance,  "so  that 
being  a  good  boy  and  getting  a  'back  seat'  was  after 
all  a  dangerous  honor,"  conferring  as  it  did  the  priv 
ilege  of  freezing.  But  it  was  different  in  the  class 
rooms.  Each  of  them  contained  "  one  of  those  excellent 
inventions  called  air-tight  stoves.  If  it  was  heated 
everyone  roasted;  if  the  fire  was  suffered  to  go  out, 
everyone  froze.  And  so,  day  after  day,  the  boys  alter 
nated  between  heat  and  cold  like  a  parcel  of  con 
demned  spirits  on  board  one  of  Whiston's  third-class 
comets."  Conditions  were  not  improved  by  a  fire 
which  destroyed  part  of  the  building  for,  the  essay 
continued,  "during  the  last  five  weeks  the  school  has 
been  located  in  a  small  inconvenient  room,  just  spa 
cious  enough  for  the  business  of  the  clerk  of  courts." 
The  pupils  were  compelled  to  sit  crowded  upon 
benches  and  without  desks.  "If  they  changed  their 
position,  they  were  brought  in  close  contact  with  the 
boys  next  to  them,  which  position  is  to  the  average 
boy  a  temptation  perfectly  irresistible." 

He  conducted  a  small  school  paper,  published  only 
in  his  own  handwriting  and  called  "The Northern 
Light,  Brighter  and  Brighter."  His  editorials  covered 
a  wide  field,  dealing  as  they  did  with  the  problems  of 
the  present  and  the  future.  They  did  not  neglect  the 
subject  of  schoolboy  manners.  One  of  the  papers 


12  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

criticized  the  behavior  of  a  fellow  student  in  attempt 
ing  a  joke  at  the  expense  of  a  teacher.  The  subjects  of 
some  of  his  essays  at  this  period  were  "Napoleon  Bon 
aparte,"  "Benedict  Arnold,"  "Elijah  on  Horeb,"  and 
"Faith  as  an  unconscious  argument."  He  extolled 
Napoleon  "in  the  mere  worldly  point  of  view,"  as  "the 
greatest  man  in  all  points  that  ever  rose  or  towered  or 
fell."  Of  Arnold,  he  asked,  "For  why  may  we  not  as 
well  think  of  Arnold  the  hero  as  of  Arnold  the  traitor?  " 
But  under  this  sentiment  is  written  in  the  hand  of  his 
mature  years,  "Painful  result  of  reading  George  Lip- 
pard."  His  essays  did  not  differ  much  from  the  usual 
schoolboy  performances  except  that  they  attained  at 
times  a  form  remarkable  in  a  writer  of  his  years,  and 
displayed  a  fondness  and  an  aptitude  for  serious  dis 
cussion.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  written  at  that 
time  upon  the  politics  of  the  day,  but  that  he  was  inter 
ested  in  the  subject  is  shown  by  a  political  canvass  of 
some  of  the  boys  of  the  school  written  by  his  own  hand 
upon  the  back  of  one  of  his  compositions.  Five  of  the 
boys  were  recorded  for  Buchanan  and  seventeen  for 
Fremont,  and  on  the  roll  of  the  latter  was  Reed's  name. 
Thus  at  that  early  age,  and  in  its  first  national  cam 
paign,  he  is  seen  to  have  been  in  sympathy  with  the 
party  of  which  he  remained  a  member  during  all  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  That  he  took  a  keen  interest  in 
politics  at  that  time  will  appear  also  from  the  following 
written  by  him  of  the  Fremont  campaign :  — 

One  of  the  pleasantest  of  my  early  recollections  is  the  great 
gathering  of  political  speakers  in   Maine  during  the  cam- 


BOYHOOD  AND   YOUTH  13 

paign  in  1856.  Eloquence  was  very  cheap  in  Maine  that 
year.  We  had  Howell  Cobb  and  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  Ben 
Wade  and  N.  P.  Banks.  It  was  in  Deering  Hall  in  Portland, 
Maine,  that  Banks  made  the  famous  "Union  Slide  Speech," 
which  afterwards  caused  him  so  much  trouble  and  so  very 
nearly  cost  him  the  Speakership.  Banks  that  day  was  in  the 
prime  of  vigor  and  personal  comeliness.  Dressed  in  blue,  with 
closely  buttoned  coat,  his  well-chosen  language,  his  graceful 
figure  and  gesture,  and  his  aggressive  way  carried  with  him 
the  whole  audience;  and  when  he  declared  that  if  the  country 
was  to  be  ruled  in  the  interest  of  slavery  he  was  ready  to  let 
the  Union  slide,  the  huge  round  of  applause  made  it  clear 
that  the  audience  and  the  occasion  were  both  with  him.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  45th  Congress,  but  how  changed! 


CHAPTER  II 

COLLEGE 

REED  was  very  well  fitted  for  college.  During  his  prep 
aration  he  made  substantial  acquirements  in  the 
classics,  for  the  study  of  which  his  mind  had  a  natural 
bent.  He  used  afterwards  to  speak  of  the  ease  with 
which  his  thorough  preparation  enabled  him  to  take 
the  first  years  of  the  college  course.  Having  success 
fully  passed  the  examinations  he  was  admitted  to 
Bowdoin,  August  28,  1856.  His  class  contained  fifty- 
eight  Freshmen,  of  whom  he  was  almost  the  youngest. 
It  was  the  largest  class  that  had  ever  entered  the  col 
lege.  The  requirements  for  admission  in  mathematics 
and  English  were  not  advanced,  but  in  Greek  and 
Latin  they  would  compare  not  unfavorably  with  the 
requirements  of  the  best  American  colleges  of  our  day. 
They  included  five  books  of  the  "Anabasis,"  two  of  the 
"Iliad,"  nine  books  of  the  "^Eneid,"  the  "Bucolics" 
and  two  "Georgics,"  Cicero's  orations  and  Sallust; 
also,  Latin  composition  and  the  grammars  of  both 
languages. 

When  Reed  entered  Bowdoin  the  college  contained 
one  hundred  and  ninety-five  students.  It  was  the  day 
of  the  small  college  and  the  number  was  not  greatly 
exceeded  in  any  of  the  colleges  of  that  time  with  per 
haps  three  exceptions.  The  optional  system  had  not 


COLLEGE  15 

come  into  vogue  and  with  scarcely  an  exception  all 
members  of  a  class  were  required  to  pursue  the  same 
studies.  The  most  stress  was  laid  upon  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  the  study  of  those  languages  was  continued 
for  three  years.  Mathematics  was  followed  through 
calculus.  The  course  had  a  theological  bent.  The 
Freshmen  were  required  to  study  Paley's  "Natural 
Theology"  and  the  "Evidences"  by  the  same  author. 
These  studies  were  followed  by  "Butler's  Analogy." 
Hebrew  was  prescribed  for  the  Seniors,  or  the  Senior 
Sophisters  as  they  were  called  in  the  catalogue.  French 
and  German  were  each  taught  for  a  year,  and  Spanish, 
apparently  optional  with  the  student,  for  a  portion 
of  a  year.  There  was  a  fair  amount  of  work  in  English, 
mental  philosophy,  and  logic,  and  a  very  limited 
amount  in  science. 

Very  much  of  course  depended  upon  the  quality  of 
the  teaching,  but  if  that  were  of  a  high  character,  the 
prescribed  curriculum  afforded  the  means  of  excellent 
discipline  and  of  a  liberal  culture,  and  it  laid  the 
foundation  for  real  scholarship  and  for  the  power  to 
think  seriously. 

But  the  instruction  appears  to  have  been  of  a  very 
high  average  quality.  It  is  doubtful  if  in  that  respect 
it  was  quite  equaled  at  that  time  by  any  other  college 
in  the  country.  The  Faculty  was  composed  of  ten 
members.  The  President  was  Leonard  Woods,  one  of 
the  most  learned  men  of  his  day  and  one  who  had 
enjoyed  a  range  of  experiences  unusual  in  the  president 
of  a  college.  When  but  thirty-two  years  old  and  in  the 


16  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

year  of  Reed's  birth,  he  became  President  of  the  Col 
lege.  He  held  the  office  for  twenty-seven  years. 
Early  in  his  presidency  he  visited  Europe  and  made 
the  acquaintance  of  men  like  Stanley,  Pusey,  Newman, 
and  Bunsen.  He  was  received  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI, 
and  in  fixing  upon  the  language  to  be  used  in  the  inter 
view,  Woods  suggested  French,  German,  and  Latin, 
with  a  preference  for  the  last,  and  the  conversation 
proceeded  for  an  hour  in  Latin.  He  was  the  guest  of 
Louis  Philippe,  and  was  received  in  the  apartments  of 
the  Queen,  who  showed  him  the  embroidery  made  by 
her  daughters;  and  he  was  permitted  to  assist  in  the 
work  of  holding  a  skein  of  worsted,  while  one  of  the 
princesses  wound  from  it. 

Very  likely  it  was  during  this  visit  to  Europe  that  he 
conceived  the  design  of  the  ecclesiastical  chapel  at 
Bowdoin,  which  is  still  in  use  and  which,  although  it 
has  been  many  times  exceeded  in  point  of  cost  by  the 
chapels  of  other  colleges,  has  not  been  surpassed  by 
any  of  them  in  appropriate  beauty. 

Woods  had  been  educated  at  Dartmouth  and  Union, 
and  it  was  probably  from  President  Nott  of  the  latter 
college  that  he  acquired  very  liberal  ideas  in  the  man 
agement  of  students.  Although  he  held  the  rigid 
orthodox  views  of  that  time  in  religion,  he  was  very 
lenient  in  matters  of  discipline;  two  things  that  were 
not  always  found  together.  He  trusted  very  much  to 
the  honor  of  the  students.  Professor  Charles  Carroll 
Everett  expressed  the  opinion,  in  an  address  at  Bow 
doin  in  1879,  that  "under  President  Woods  Bowdoin 


COLLEGE  17 

College  offered  means  of  education  in  some  respects 
unequaled  in  the  country."  The  President  was  much 
more  to  the  students  than  a  mere  inspiration;  he  bore 
an  important  part  in  the  work  performed  in  the 
class-room. 

Of  the  nine  other  instructors  some  were  scarcely  less 
distinguished  than  the  President  himself,  and  there  is 
hardly  one  of  them  whose  name  is  not  held  in  respect 
to-day  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Bowdoin  field.  Profes 
sor  Parker  Cleveland  was  perhaps  the  foremost  Ameri 
can  of  his  time  in  mineralogy,  and  was  the  author  of 
the  first  textbook  upon  that  subject  in  common  use. 
The  "Edinburgh  Review"  spoke  of  his  work  on  geol 
ogy  and  mineralogy  as  "the  most  useful  work  on 
mineralogy  in  our  language." 

Professor  Daniel  C.  Upham  was  the  author  of  many 
books,  of  which  his  "Mental  Philosophy"  was  for  a 
long  time  the  standard  textbook  in  American  colleges. 
Provost  Goodwin  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
said  of  him  that  he  was  "as  versatile  and  many-sided 
as  Ulysses,  but  to  the  right;  good  and  steady  at  heart 
as  the  needle  to  the  pole." 

Professor  Alpheus  S.  Packard  was  renowned  as  a 
teacher  of  the  Classics  and  also  as  an  author  in  his 
chosen  field.  The  two  Smyths  were  distinguished  in 
their  respective  subjects,  the  one  as  a  theological 
scholar  and  the  other  as  the  author  of  works  on  algebra 
and  calculus,  which  were  widely  used  in  the  other  col 
leges.  Professor  Charles  Carroll  Everett,  after  notable 
service  in  the  Bowdoin  Faculty,  became  a  professor  at 


18  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Harvard.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain  was  then  at  the 
threshold  of  a  varied  and  brilliant  career.  Although 
under  thirty  he  had  attained  the  rank  of  professor. 
He  was  destined  to  become  a  major-general,  to  com 
mand  the  Union  army  which  received  the  surrender 
of  Lee,  and  afterwards  to  become  the  President  of 
Bowdoin  and  Governor  of  Maine.  Warren  Johnson 
became  the  first  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Maine 
and  did  much  to  perfect  the  system  of  state  educa 
tion.  It  was  under  such  teachers  that  Reed  had  the 
good  fortune  to  come  when  he  entered  Bowdoin. 

The  conditions  surrounding  the  college  were  admir 
ably  adapted  to  secure  to  him  the  full  benefit  to  be 
derived  from  such  instructors.  The  number  of  stu 
dents  was  small.  All  the  members  of  a  class  pursued  the 
same  studies.  It  would  sometimes  have  the  same  pro 
fessor  in  courses  running  through  two,  or  even  three, 
years.  The  recitation,  instead  of  the  lecture,  system 
prevailed  in  the  class-room,  with  its  more  direct  con 
tact  between  the  teacher  and  the  scholar.  Each  stu 
dent  was  likely  to  be  called  upon  to  recite  each  day,  to 
be  quizzed,  and  to  receive  the  personal  touch  of  the 
instructor.  It  was  therefore  inevitable  that  the  teacher 
and  the  student  who  was  not  stupid  should  thoroughly 
measure  each  other,  and  that  each  should  grasp  the 
workings  of  the  other's  mind.  Thus,  with  his  four 
years  at  Bowdoin  with  such  instruction,  following 
nearly  six  years  under  Master  Lyford,  there  were  no 
American  boys  of  his  time  whose  opportunities  for 
education  Reed  had  reason  to  envy. 


COLLEGE  19 

But  it  is  important  to  consider  the  quality  of  the  stu 
dents,  who  have  such  an  important  educating  influence 
upon  each  other.  Turning  from  the  instructors  to  the 
scholars,  we  find  that  the  latter  were  almost  wholly 
from  New  England,  and  the  greater  number  of  them 
from  Maine.  They  were  mainly  of  the  same  racial 
stock  as  Reed.  Very  few  were  from  rich  families,  and 
many  were  wholly  or  partially  dependent  upon  their 
own  efforts  for  the  means  of  maintaining  themselves 
in  the  college.  These  requirements  were  by  no  means 
heavy,  the  total  annual  expense  according  to  the 
Catalogue  being  $185.  The  common  method  of  earning 
money  was  by  teaching  "winter  school/'  and  the  col 
lege  terms  seem  to  have  been  adjusted  so  that  such 
teaching  might  be  followed  with  the  least  interruption 
to  the  college  work.  The  summer  vacation  was  only 
three  weeks  in  length,  instead  of  three  months  as  is 
now  the  rule  among  colleges,  and  the  long  vacation 
period  came  in  the  winter.  The  average  student  did 
not  enter  the  college  because  it  was  fashionable  to  do 
so  or  because  he  had  been  sent  by  his  parents,  but  with 
the  serious  purpose  of  obtaining  an  education  which  he 
was  willing  to  make  sacrifices  to  secure.  An  atmos 
phere  of  study  pervaded  the  place,  and  the  competi 
tion  in  scholarship  and  in  the  debating  contests  was 
very  keen, 

The  other  marked  qualities  of  the  eternal  schoolboy, 
however,  were  not  wanting  among  the  Bowdoin  stu 
dents.  The  spirit  of  work  did  not  banish  the  spirit  of 
play,  and  they  were  ready  to  perpetrate  jokes  of  a 


20  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

practical  character  upon  each  other  and  even  upon 
members  of  the  august  Faculty.  Athletic  sports  were 
not  highly  developed  in  the  colleges  of  that  day,  but 
boating  seems  to  have  been  well  organized  at  Bowdoin. 
Reed  was  a  member  of  the  eight-oar  crew  of  his  class, 
and  from  a  description  of  the  boat  which  "The  Bugle" 
has  preserved  for  posterity,  it  appears  that  it  was  fifty 
feet  long  and  painted  straw  color  with  blue  stripes.  He 
was  also  a  member  of  a  chess  club,  and  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  college  paper  just  referred  to  —  "The 
Bugle." 

For  lack  of  intensity  in  athletic  rivalry,  except  dur 
ing  a  brief  portion  of  the  year,  the  societies  used  to 
debate  fiercely  with  each  other.  Reed  was  one  of  the 
foremost  debaters  in  the  college,  and  was  sent  forth  by 
his  society  as  one  of  its  champions  to  vanquish  its 
rivals.  His  speech  in  one  of  these  debates  made  a  deep 
impression,  if  one  may  judge  from  the  current  news 
paper  reports.  The  Peucinian,  of  which  Reed  was  a 
member,  had  borne  upon  the  rolls  of  its  membership 
Nathan  Lord,  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  Sergeant  S. 
Prentiss,  George  Evans,  William  L.  Putnam,  and 
William  P.  Frye.  The  membership  of  the  other  society 
had  been  not  less  distinguished,  containing  as  it  did 
William  Pitt  Fessenden,  Franklin  Pierce,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  and  John  A.  Andrew.  Each  society  thus 
had  inspiring  traditions,  and  the  rivalry  between  them 
was  very  sharp. 

Reed  was  also  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  Bow 
doin  Debating  Club,  which  was  apparently  made  up  of 


COLLEGE  21 

members  from  both  societies.  He  had  a  pronounced 
taste  for  discoursing  upon  moral  themes.  His  memory 
was  phenomenal  and  he  showed  clearly  the  ready  wit 
for  which  he  was  afterwards  distinguished  in  public 
life.  In  a  short  description  of  one  of  these  debates 
which  survives,  there  is  evident  the  elaborate  prepa 
ration  that  had  been  made  by  some  of  the  speakers. 
One  of  Reed's  adversaries  was  prepared  to  defend  his 
position  with  a  huge  heap  of  books  which  he  had 
brought  in  to  support  his  arguments.  When  it  came 
Reed's  turn  to  speak,  he  arose  slowly  and  with  an 
appearance  of  indifference  he  proceeded  to  the  argu 
ment  which  his  opponent  had  thought  it  necessary  to 
fortify  with  such  a  mass  of  authority.  He  hardly 
thought  it  necessary,  he  observed,  "to  bring  in  the 
whole  college  library,"  in  order  to  maintain  such  a 
proposition. 

The  two  societies  were  open  ones,  as  distinguished 
from  those  which  were  secret  and  which  had  only  a 
short  time  previously  taken  a  firm  hold  at  Bowdoin. 
To  societies  of  the  latter  sort  Reed  was  sternly  op 
posed.  There  had  been  a  strong  sentiment  developed 
against  secret  orders  by  the  agitation  against  Masonry, 
which  had  attained  the  dignity  of  a  national  political 
issue.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Reed  had  been  affected 
by  the  arguments  employed  in  that  controversy. 
Although  more  than  three  fourths  of  all  the  students 
belonged  to  secret  orders,  Reed  not  only  declined  to 
join,  but  he  opposed  them  with  some  degree  of  bitter 
ness.  His  classmate  Allen,  who  became  a  member  of 


22  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  class  at  the  beginning  of  the  Sophomore  year,  was 
about  to  join  one  of  these  orders  when  Reed  strongly 
remonstrated  with  him  and  even  made  it  something 
of  a  personal  matter.  Allen,  however,  persisted  in  his 
determination  and  became  a  member  of  the  Psi 
Upsilon.  That  Reed's  displeasure  was  not  permanent 
is  easily  shown  by  the  good-will  which  afterwards  he 
repeatedly  exhibited  toward  Allen. 

During  a  part  of  his  college  course,  Reed  taught 
school.  In  the  winter  of  his  Senior  year  the  school  of 
which  he  was  master  was  in  Brunswick,  about  six  miles 
distant  from  the  village  in  which  the  college  was  situ 
ated,  and  he  used  to  spend  his  holidays  in  the  village 
with  one  of  his  college  mates,1  walking  back  and  forth 
between  the  town  and  the  school.  "On  one  of  these 
walks,"  Reed  said  afterwards,  "I  distinctly  recollect 
there  were  huge  drifts  of  snow  from  a  recent  storm. 
Jupiter  was  the  planet  nearest  to  the  earth  that  night; 
and  many  a  time  I  threw  myself  down  on  the  snow  to 
rest  and  gaze  at  that  large  ball  of  fire  in  the  heavens." 

Reed's  means  became  completely  exhausted  during 
his  Senior  year  and  he  was  enabled  to  graduate  with 
his  class  only  by  a  timely  loan  of  money  made  by 
William  Pitt  Fessenden.  Fessenden's  son  Samuel  and 
Reed  were  close  friends,  and  although  of  different 
classes  roomed  together  during  Reed's  Senior  year. 
Young  Fessenden  learned  that  Reed's  funds  were 
exhausted  and  that  he  had  decided  to  quit  college, 
although  within  three  months  of  graduation.  He 
1  F.  L.  Dingiey. 


COLLEGE  23 

brought  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  his  father,  with 
the  result  that  a  loan  of  two  hundred  dollars  was  made. 
Reed  never  forgot  this  kindness.  When  Senator 
Fessenden  voted  against  the  impeachment  of  Andrew 
Johnson  in  1868,  and  alienated  many  members  of  his 
party  by  that  courageous  but  unpopular  act,  Reed 
bravely  defended  him,  although  with  some  risk  to  him 
self,  as  he  was  at  that  time  just  entering  upon  his  own 
political  career.  The  loan  had  long  before  been  repaid 
with  interest.  Reed  paid  the  greater  part  of  it  the  year 
after  graduation  and  the  final  payment  was  inclosed 
in  a  letter  written  when  he  was  an  assistant  paymaster 
in  the  Navy  on  the  U.S.  Steamer  Sybil  at  Memphis, 
October  18,  1864.  The  letter  concluded  as  follows:  - 

I  know  you  will  not  believe  me  any  less  thankful  if  I 
express  my  thanks  in  few  words.  Since  you  loaned  me  the 
money  I  have  seen  enough  of  the  world  to  know  that  I  might 
live  as  long  again  without  finding  a  man  who  would  do  such 
an  act  of  kindness  in  so  kind  a  manner. 

Reed's  room-mate,  Samuel  Fessenden,  was  a  young 
man  of  brilliant  promise.  He  became  a  lieutenant  of 
artillery  in  the  Union  army,  was  mortally  wounded  in 
battle,  and  died  in  Centre ville,  Virginia,  September  1, 
1862.  In  his  speech  at  the  Portland  Centennial  in 
1886  Reed  spoke  thus  tenderly  of  both  father  and 
son:  — 

The  most  impressive  scene  I  ever  witnessed  took  place  in 
this  Very  hall.  Here,  almost  on  the  very  spot  where  I  now 
stand,  William  Pitt  Fessenden  stood,  before  the  constituency 
which  had  loved  and  honored  him  for  so  many  years.  The 
hall  was  black  with  the  thronging  multitude.  It  was  at  the 


24  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

beginning  of  a  great  presidential  campaign,  the  last  he  was 
ever  to  witness.  The  great  problem  of  reconstruction  was  to 
be  reviewed.  Mr.  Fessenden  had  been  the  master-spirit  in  its 
solution.  The  war-debt  was  to  be  assailed.  Mr.  Fessenden 
had  been  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Finance  and  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury.  To  all  this  was  added  the  intense  per 
sonal  interest  of  his  recent  defeat  of  the  impeachment  of 
Andrew  Johnson.  With  full  knowledge  of  the  storm  about 
him,  but  with  the  courage  of  a  perfect  conviction,  he  faced  the 
responsibility.  The  occasion  was  a  great  one,  but  the  man 
was  greater  than  the  occasion.  Calmly  ignoring,  except  in 
one  sharp,  incisive  sentence,  all  that  was  personal,  with  his 
old  vigor,  terseness  and  simplicity  he  explained  to  his  towns 
men  the  momentous  issues  of  the  campaign.  From  the  mo 
ment  he  began,  the  party  rage  commenced  to  cease  and  the 
old  pride  in  his  greatness  and  honesty  began  to  take  its  place. 
How  strong  he  looked  that  night!  Although  all  the  world 
might  falter,  you  knew  that  calm  face  would  be  steadfast. 
To  him  had  happened  the  rare  good  fortune  of  having  cour 
age  and  character  which  matched  a  great  opportunity.  Few 
men  would  have  been  so  brave,  and  fewer  still,  successful. 

I  have  not  spoken  of  the  conduct  of  our  city  in  either  of  the 
wars  waged  beyond  its  limits.  That  subject  also  would  be 
too  vast  for  an  occasion  like  this.  Nor  do  I  like  to  speak  at 
all  of  the  one  within  the  memory  of  us  all.  For  us  it  has  as 
much  of  sorrow  as  of  glory.  It  brings  up  to  me  the  vision  of  a 
fair  young  face,  the  quiet  associate  of  the  studious  hours,  the 
bright  companion  of  the  days  of  pleasure.  Can  it  be  that  I 
shall  never  look  into  those  cheerful  eyes  again?  Can  it  be 
that  neither  the  quaint  jest  of  the  happier  hours,  nor  the 
solemn  confidences  of  the  heart  just  opening  to  a  full  sense 
of  the  high  duties  of  life,  will  ever  again  fall  upon  the  ear  of 
friendship  or  of  love?  It  can  be  no  otherwise.  He  can  only 
live  in  my  memory,  but  he  lives  there,  sublimated  in  the 
crucible  of  death,  from  all  imperfections,  clothed  upon  with 
all  his  virtues  and  radiant  with  all  the  possibilities  of  a  gen 
erous  youth.  Other  companions  have  failed  in  their  careers, 
but  not  he.  All  the  world  has  grown  old,  but  he  is  forever 
young.  And  yet  the  dead,  however  sweetly  embalmed,  are 


COLLEGE  25 

but  the  dead.  One  touch  of  the  vanished  hand  were  worth 
all  our  dreams.  All  our  memories,  however  tender,  are  con 
solation  only  because  there  can  be  no  other,  for  the  lost 
strength  and  vigor  of  the  living,  the  stilled  pulsations  of  a 
heart  no  longer  beating  to  thoughts  of  earth.  What  safe  my 
heart  holds,  holds  many  a  heart  in  this  great  audience.  The 
generations  to  come  will  celebrate  the  glory.  This  genera 
tion  knows  the  cost. 

Reed  was  not  a  hard  student  during  the  first  three 
years  of  his  college  course,  although  even  during  those 
years  he  maintained  a  place  among  the  leaders  of  his 
class.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  languages,  but 
on  account  of  the  excellent  training  he  had  received 
in  the  High  School,  he  was  able  to  attain  a  good  rank 
without  hard  study.  He  aroused  himself  during  his 
Senior  year,  with  the  result  that  his  rank  was  not  only 
the  highest  in  the  class  in  that  year,  but  fell  short  of 
being  perfect  only  by  a  very  small  fraction.  Symonds 
was  not  far  behind  him,  and  they  were  in  a  class  by 
themselves,  far  in  advance  of  the  one  who  was  third. 
The  rank  for  the  Freshman  year  does  not  appear  to  be 
obtainable,  but  on  the  average  for  the  last  three  years 
Boyd,  who  afterwards  became  a  professor  in  the  col 
lege,  was  the  leader  of  the  class,  which  graduated  fifty- 
five  members.  Symonds,  destined  to  become  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Maine,  and  the  youngest 
man  who  ever  attained  a  place  upon  it,  was  second, 
and  Reed  was  the  fifth  and  easily  one  of  those  elected 
to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society.  Reed  had  distinguished 
himself  in  language,  in  philosophy,  moral  and  intel 
lectual,  and  by  taking  the  first  prize  in  English  com- 


26  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

position  in  the  Senior  year.  At  graduation,  August  1, 
1860,  he  delivered  an  oration  upon  "The  Fear  of 
Death."  The  newspaper  reports  of  that  time  com 
mended  his  part  as  "excellently  written,"  and  delivered 
with  energy.  The  Brunswick  "Telegraph"  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  he  "treated  his  subject  in  a  pe 
culiar  vein  but  in  good  taste,  and  his  language  in  many 
passages  was  singularly  beautiful  and  appropriate." 

Many  exercises  evidently  written  by  Reed  while  in 
college  are  still  in  existence,  and  when  his  experience 
and  age  are  considered  it  must  be  conceded  that  they 
are  well  written.  In  an  essay  on  Penn  he  said:  "Great 
minds  are  perhaps  only  little  minds  magnified.  If  their 
virtues  are  enlarged,  their  imperfections  are  increased. 
Take  a  man  in  a  crowd  and  you  will  notice  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other;  but  elevate  him,  let  all  the  world 
gaze  at  him,  and  his  vices  will  be  as  prominent  as  his 
virtues."  Writing  of  the  "Disquietudes  of  Fame,"  he 
argued  that  ambition  was  advantageous  to  the  world 
at  large  but  brought  to  the  individual  more  sorrow 
than  pleasure.  "A  life  of  ambition,"  he  said,  "must 
always  be  a  life  of  toil  and  tension.  And  what  is  the 
reward?  A  place  in  history.  Can  this  benefit  the 
dead?  "  Among  the  subjects  upon  which  he  wrote  were 
"Is  man  Responsible  for  his  Belief?"  and  "Does 
Education  have  a  Tendency  to  Detract  from  True 
Originality?"  He  had  a  fondness  for  the  discussion  of 
theological  questions.  Prior  to  entering  college  he  had 
joined  the  State  Street  Congregational  Church  in 
Portland,  but  while  in  college  he  discussed  religious 


THOMAS   B.    REED,  18GO 


COLLEGE  27 

questions  freely  and  came  to  question  some  of  the  doc 
trines  of  the  church.  A  letter  written  February  7, 
1863,  to  Reverend  Hugh  Carpenter,  the  pastor  of  his 
church,  will  show  something  of  the  condition  of  Reed's 
religious  belief  a  year  and  a  half  after  he  had  gradu 
ated  from  college,  and  of  the  way  in  which  his  change  of 
belief  was  brought  about.  The  letter  is  a  long  one  but  the 
following  extracts  will  serve  to  indicate  its  character: 

During  the  time  I  was  in  College  I  had  the  habit  of  dis 
cussing  theological  questions  at  every  opportunity  with  any 
body  and  everybody.  I  always  took  the  opposite  side,  with 
rigid  and  pleasing  impartiality.  If  my  opponent  was  an 
Unbeliever  I  tried  to  convince  him  of  the  truth  of  Christian 
ity;  if  a  Christian,  I  asked  him  to  answer  the  objections 
which  seemed  to  me  worthy  of  consideration.  Of  course  I 
could  not  go  on  in  this  manner  without  giving  a  careful  in 
vestigation  to  the  whole  subject  when  alone  by  myself.  The 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  the  various  phases  of  which 
you  can  easily  imagine,  was  this,  that  the  creed  of  the  Church 
was  untenable.  ...  I  do  not  believe  in  an  Atonement,  because 
I  cannot  see  its  necessity.  The  whole  idea  strikes  me  as 
artificial.  If  all  our  sins  and  their  effects  are  to  be  washed 
away  by  vicarious  suffering  and  we  are  to  find  ourselves  pure 
and  perfect  when  we  touch  the  other  shore,  the  problem  of 
"  Recognition  in  Heaven  "  is  going  to  be  terribly  complicated. 
It  is  needless  perhaps  to  say  that  I  am  not  persuaded  of  the 
"fall  of  man";  and  as  for  that  apotheosis  of  lounging,  the  life 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  I  believe  in  it  as  little  as  I  do  in  the 
Saturr'j,  Regna.  If  that  Paradise  had  ever  existed  and  man 
had  Orown  up  in  it,  it  would  have  been  merely  a  Paradise  of 
fools.  It  is  only  by  fighting  the  devil,  that  we  ever  get  to  be 
anything.  God's  law,  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face,  shalt  thou 
eat  bread,"  is  not  a  sentence  of  banishment  and  disgrace, 
but  a  promise  of  strength,  progress  and  power.  The  doctrine 
of  Eternal  Punishment  is  equally  repugnant.  The  main 
object  of  punishment  in  this  world  is  not  to  inflict  pain,  but 


28  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

by  means  of  pain  to  deter  the  criminal  and  other  members  of 
society  from  committing  crimes.  To  punish  a  man  when  he 
can  no  longer  commit  crime  and  after  the  possibility  of 
serving  as  an  example  has  ceased,  would,  on  this  earth,  be 
inexcusable  and  wanton  malignity  and  I  cannot  think  that 
the  conditions  of  things  will  be  so  radically  changed  as  to 
make  it  wisdom,  justice,  an4  mercy  in  the  future  world.  .  .  . 
My  positive  beliefs  can  be  put  into  a  much  smaller  space. 
I  believe  in  God  as  the  maker  and  controller  of  the  world.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  he  has  predestined  everything  from  the 
beginning;  that  we  are  mere  machines  in  his  hand  to  do  his 
will,  that  he  rules  us  by  supplying  motives,  so  that  all  our 
little  designs  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  his  great  design. 
As  for  the  future  life,  I  suppose  we  shall  commence  our  exis 
tence  where  wre  left  off  here.  The  more  I  have  disciplined 
myself  here,  the  better  position  I  shall  have  hereafter.  If  I 
can  make  myself  like  the  good  and  great  of  past  ages,  when  I 
reach  heaven  I  shall  sit  down  with  St.  Paul  and  Abraham 
and  Isaac  and  all  those  whose  applause  I  have  worthily 
sought  during  my  life.  If  I  become  an  unscrupulous  villain,  I 
shall  probably  have  to  sit  down  with  that  rascally  Jacob, 
who  took  advantage  of  his  brother's  hunger  to  cheat  him 
out  of  his  birthright  and  then  filched  from  him  his  father's 
blessing  and  afterwards  became  one  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Faithful.  .  .  . 

Reed  could  not  be  called  a  college  chauvinist,  but  he 
retained  a  deep  regard  for  Bowdoin.  Nearly  thirty 
years  after  his  graduation  he  said  in  an  address  at 
Brunswick:  "Bowdoin  has  many  superiors  in  wealth 
and  size,  but  for  the  production  of  men  of  good  sense, 
culture,  intellectual  grasp  and  capacity  for  affairs,  it 
has  few  rivals  and  no  superior." 

It  was  not  at  all  inconsistent  with  this  estimate  that 
he  put  upon  the  college  that  he  made  a  very  sensible 
criticism  of  the  college  education  of  that  time.  This 


COLLEGE  29 

criticism  appeared  in  a  paper  he  read  at  a  club  in 
Portland  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  public  career,  and 
was  afterwards  repeated  at  Bowdoin  in  a  modified 
form.  With  some  light  and  witty  observations  about 
the  Faculty  he  mingled  some  serious  views  upon  edu 
cation.  This  paper  is  labeled  in  the  handwriting  of 
Reed,  "Professors  much  disgusted."  But  the  disgust 
was  apparently  due  to  their  own  lack  of  humor.  He 
was  clearly  expressing  his  own  sense  of  the  contrast 
between  the  college  standard  and  that  to  which  the 
college  graduate  was  compelled  to  adapt  himself  when 
he  went  into  active  life.  He  said :  — 

"Perhaps  the  most  useless  piece  of  furniture  on  the  foot 
stool  for  the  first  two  or  three  years  is  the  college  graduate, 
whose  scholarship  was  a  comfort  to  the  professors  and  an  an 
noyance  to  his  competitors.  These  years  are  a  worry  to  the 
scholar  himself.  He  has  to  take  all  that  time  to  get  right 
with  the  new  world,  to  find  the  other  standards  by  which  he 
must  measure  his  efforts,  and  to  realize  the  nothingness  of 
the  honors  he  has  won." 

He  detected  the  lack  of  the  practical  element  in  the 
college  course,  and  what  he  said  would  have  applied 
not  merely  to  Bowdoin,  but  probably  to  all  the  other 
colleges  of  that  day. 

If  it  were  true  [he  said]  that  what  we  popularly  call  Educa 
tion,  that  is,  Book  Learning,  made  the  whole  man,  if  mathe 
matics,  classics  and  sciences  were  all  the  cargo  he  was  to 
take  abroad,  we  might  easily  make  up  a  select  assortment 
such  as  no  gentleman's  mind  should  be  without  and  send  our 
young  graduate  to  sea  with  reasonable  hope  that  he  would 
arrive  safe  and  sound  and  sell  all  his  wares  in  celestial  and 
everlasting  markets. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  NAVY  —  EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER 

AFTER  graduating  Reed  at  once  set  to  work,  in  order 
to  earn  money  with  which  to  pay  his  college  debts. 
He  taught  school  for  a  year  in  the  Boys'  High  School 
of  Portland,  where  he  had  fitted  for  college,  and  also 
for  a  few  months  in  Stockton,  California.  He  began 
the  study  of  law  in  1861,  probably  in  San  Jose,  Cali 
fornia,  and  continued  its  study  in  Portland  until  1864, 
in  which  year,  on  the  19th  of  April,  he  enlisted  in  the 
Navy.  He  was  appointed  an  acting  assistant  pay 
master,  was  assigned  to  the  Mississippi  squadron  com 
manded  by  Admiral  Porter,  and  ordered  in  June,  1864, 
to  the  steamer  Sybil.  He  remained  on  this  ship  for 
more  than  a  year,  and  indeed  until  his  active  service 
in  the  Navy  ended.  He  was  honorably  discharged 
November  4,  1865,  after  a  service  of  nearly  nineteen 
months.  The  position  of  paymaster  in  the  Navy  is 
not  ordinarily  a  fighting  place;  the  title  of  the  office 
surely  has  a  pacific  sound;  but  that  officer  must  take 
his  chances  with  his  ship  and  is  exposed  to  most  of  the 
dangers  of  battle.  If  the  ship  is  sunk  he  is  as  likely  to 
find  his  way  to  the  bottom  as  is  any  of  the  crew.  When 
therefore  Reed  enlisted  and  took  his  place  in  a  squad 
ron  which  had  rendered  historic  service  on  the  Missis 
sippi,  at  Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donelson,  Pittsburg  Land- 


THE  NAVY— EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER  31 

ing,  and  Vicksburg,  and  was  likely  to  be  called  upon 
again  for  hazardous  service,  he  was  to  be  credited  with 
the  same  courage  as  would  have  been  implied  by 
enlistment  as  a  fighting  officer  or  sailor.  But  he  was 
disposed  to  make  very  light  of  his  service  in  the  Navy, 
as  will  appear  from  a  speech  he  made  before  the  Loyal 
Legion  in  1884,  in  Washington:  — 

The  Navy  means  to  me  far  different  things  than  to  many 
here  before  me.  To  the  distinguished  admiral  [Steedman] 
who  sits  beside  me,  and  to  the  distinguished  admiral  [Jen 
kins]  who  sits  opposite,  it  means  the  shriek  of  shot  and  shell, 
the  horrors  of  the  blockade.  To  me  it  meant  no  roaring 
wind,  no  shriek  of  shot  and  shell,  but  level  water  and  the 
most  delightful  time  of  my  life.  For  I  was  on  a  gunboat  on 
the  Mississippi  River  after  the  valor  and  courage  of  you 
gentlemen  had  driven  the  enemy  off.  ...  You  see,  I  kept  a 
grocery  store  for  the  government,  and  well  remember  how  I 
was  tumbled  aboard  ship  the  first  day,  with  the  provisions 
and  small  stores  and  a  set  of  books,  and  the  boat  steamed  up 
the  magnificent  defiles  of  the  Tennessee.  .  .  .  But  I  also  suf 
fered  for  my  country.  How  well  I  remember  the  fatal  day 
when  I  drew  five  thousand  dollars  from  the  bank.  The  first 
time  I  counted  the  bills  there  was  only  forty-eight  hundred 
dollars.  The  next  time  it  came  out  fifty- two  hundred  dol 
lars.  I  sweltered  over  it  in  the  bank  that  hot  August  day,  but 
it  never  would  come  out  two  times  alike.  Then  in  utter  de 
spair  I  bundled  it  up,  took  it  aboard,  locked  myself  in  my 
office,  and  there  in  grim  despair  wrestled  with  it  alone.  I  And 
lo  and  behold !  there  was  just  five  thousand  dollars,  —  just 
what  the  bank  clerk  told  me  there  was. 

It  was  a  delightful  life.  Thirteen  hundred  dollars  a  year 
and  one  ration,  and  nothing  to  do.  My  sad  heart  hath  often 
panted  for  it  since.  However,  I  learned  that  my  country 
could  support  me,  and  I  am  bound  to  say  it  has  faithfully 
done  so  most  ever  since.  What  a  charming  life  that  was, 
that  dear  old  life  in  the  Navy!  I  knew  all  the  regulations 


32  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

and  the  rest  of  them  did  n't.  I  had  all  my  rights  and  most 
of  theirs.  .  . . 

Do  you  wonder  that  I  stand  up  for  the  Navy?  I  want  it 
increased  and  I  have  solid  reasons  for  it.  It  means  some 
thing  to  me. 

Mr.  Commander  and  companions,  I  have  made  this  speech 
to  you  in  the  lightest  vein  because  I  have  no  right  to  use  any 
other.  The  brave  faces  that  I  see  before  me  have  been  bared 
to  the  shock  of  battle  and  of  storm.  You  have  seen  on  a  hun 
dred  battle-fields  the  living  and  the  dead.  It  would  be  a 
shame  for  me  to  talk  seriously  of  service  to  men  like  you. 
This  button  —  insignia  of  the  order  —  you  wear  because  you 
honor  it.  /  wear  it  because  it  honors  me. 

His  service  on  the  Sybil,  patrolling  the  Tennessee, 
Cumberland,  and  Mississippi  rivers,  was  an  excellent 
supplement  to  his  training  in  college  and  as  a  teacher. 
One  has  no  difficulty  in  picturing  him  as  the  life  of  the 
company  of  officers  aboard  the  ship,  making  the  hap 
penings  of  the  day  the  subject  of  his  droll  and  philo 
sophic  talk. 

His  sojourn  of  nearly  a  year  in  California  also  helped 
broaden  his  outlook,  but  he  was  very  far  from  getting 
out  of  it  the  enjoyment  that  he  had  derived  from  his 
service  in  the  Navy.  An  article  written  while  he  was 
in  that  state  reads  very  much  like  the  composition  of  a 
homesick  man.  The  inhabitants  of  California,  he  wrote, 
were  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe  —  "from  New  Eng 
land,  Pike  County,  Missouri  and  distant  lands."  He  di 
vided  California  into  two  parts, "  San  Francisco  and  the 
rest  of  California."  Of  the  latter  part,  he  said  that  it 

is  populated  exclusively  from  Pike  County,  Missouri. 
Within  the  limits  of  that  fatal  region  a  white  man  is  sel 
dom  seen.  When  one  white  man  meets  another  there  is  no 


THOMAS    li.    KEED,  18G4 


THE  NAVY  — EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER  33 

pleasant  spectacle,  for  they  meet  but  to  mingle  the  tears  of 
exile  in  a  foreign  land,  to  talk  over  happiness  departed  and 
to  dream  of  home  and  Christian  civilization. 

When  a  man  lands  in  California  the  citizens  crowd  around 
him  to  explain  what  a  fortunate  being  he  is  and  to  demand  of 
him  immediate,  instant  recognition  of  the  greatness  of  the 
country.  .  .  . 

Everyone  praises  the  climate.  Now  I  am  forced,  though 
reluctantly,  to  admit  that  the  climate  is  not  so  bad.  To 
smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  in  the  midst  of  January  weather 
is  certainly  comforting.  But  I  have  noticed  that  while  all 
Californians  are  gratifyingly  unanimous  in  chanting  the 
glories  of  the  climate  of  the  Pacific  slope  in  general,  each  one 
refreshes  himself  by  cursing  in  particular  the  spot  which  the 
wrath  of  God  has  condemned  him  to  help  populate.  The 
programme  of  the  weather  in  San  Francisco  during  the  sum 
mer  months  is  as  regular  as  the  rascality  of  the  stockbrokers. 
In  the  morning  about  ten  o'clock  the  heat  is  tempered  by  a 
wind  which  sets  in  from  the  ocean.  Alone,  by  itself,  this 
would  be  grateful.  But  it  is  fated  that  all  pleasant  things 
should  have  their  compensations.  And,  as  it  is,  this  refreshing 
breeze  serves  to  fill  the  air  with  clouds  of  blinding  dust.  .  .  . 
In  the  interior  the  mornings  are  pleasant  but  the  afternoons 
most  intolerably  hot,  giving  one  a  lifelike  idea  of  the  feelings 
of  a  wet  rag.  The  dust  lies  foot-deep  all  summer  long.  What 
clothes  you  wear  is  a  matter  of  sublime  indifference;  for  a 
half-mile  walk  makes  black  and  white  all  one  color.  ...  In 
the  winter  the  rain  falls  in  torrents  till  the  whole  state  is  one 
vast  sea  of  mud. 

Warm  weather  all  the  year  round  would  be  a  comfort, 
indeed,  if  one  could  sometimes  sprawl  on  the  green  grass 
and  enjoy  the  pleasant  breeze.  But  green  grass  we  sometimes 
see  in  dreams  in  California,  but  never  on  the  ground.  In  a  few 
front  yards  in  San  Francisco,  grass  struggles  for  existence, 
but  it  looks  like  the  recollection  of  green  grass,  not  green 
grass  itself.  Even  the  trees  are  so  enveloped  in  dust  that  a 
man  forgets  the  color  of  leaves.  The  whole  aspect  of  nature 
is  unutterably  barren.  The  mountains  are  bare  of  trees.  .  .  . 
One  longs  to  see  on  the  hills  the  forests  of  pine  which  beautify 


84  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

our  New  England  hills.  .  .  .  Nature  never  intended  any  man 
to  live  here,  only  to  dig  gold  and  get  himself  out  of  it;  and 
shudder  in  dreams  ever  afterwards. 

After  five  years  spent  in  teaching,  in  the  naval  serv 
ice,  and  in  California,  Reed  found  himself,  in  the  lat 
ter  part  of  1865,  in  his  native  city  of  Portland.  He 
had  been  admitted  to  the  bar  at  San  Jose,  California, 
September  8, 1863,  where  he  was  examined  by  William 
P.  Wallace,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  in 
that  state.  Reed  was  asked  if  he  thought  the  Legal 
Tender  Act,  then  recently  passed,  was  constitutional, 
and  he  answered  that  he  thought  it  was.  Wallace 
thereupon  said  that  another  young  man  that  morning 
had  answered  the  same  question  the  other  way.  "We 
will  recommend  you  both  favorably,  as  we  think  that 
all  young  men  who  can  answer  great  constitutional 
questions  off-hand,  ought  to  be  admitted  to  the  bar." 
He  was  also  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Cumberland 
County,  Maine,  in  October,  1865,  on  the  recommenda 
tion  of  the  examining  committee,  of  which  Nathan 
Webb  and  S.  C.  Stuart  were  members.  He  took  an 
office  in  Portland  and  began  to  contend  for  a  living  at 
a  bar  which  was  not  merely  the  strongest  in  Maine 
but,  in  average  quality,  one  of  the  strongest  in  the 
country.  Among  its  members  were  his  own  college 
mates  Putnam  and  Symonds,  who  were  destined  to 
achieve  distinction. 

The  first  of  his  cases  to  reach  the  Supreme  Court  of 
his  state  was  decided  in  1868.  The  amount  involved 
was  $48.  Reed,  who  was  for  the  plaintiff,  had  won  a 


THE  NAVY -EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER    35 

verdict  in  the  lower  court,  but  the  case  was  taken  up 
on  the  important  question  of  law  whether  driving  with 
a  young  lady  Sunday  evening  was  a  work  of  necessity 
or  charity,  if  the  young  lady  had  earlier  in  the  day 
walked  several  miles  to  church.  The  court  above 
reversed  the  verdict  and  Reed  lost  his  momentous 
contention. 

He  was  not  long  in  establishing  himself,  and  his  rise 
was  rapid.  After  less  than  three  years  of  practice  he 
was  nominated  by  the  Republicans  of  Portland  as 
their  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  and  his  nomination 
was  followed  by  an  election.  His  reputation  as  a 
lawyer  preceded  him  to  the  State  Capitol  and  he  was 
given  a  place  on  the  Judiciary  Committee,  which  was 
the  leading  committee  in  the  Legislature.  The  most 
important  legislation  of  which  he  had  charge  was  a  bill 
establishing  a  Superior  Court  for  his  county,  the  enact 
ment  of  which  he  was  able  to  secure.  The  passage  of 
this  law  reduced  the  time  of  bringing  contested  suits 
to  jury  trial  from  three  years  to  three  months.  He 
was  again  elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
1869,  and  in  the  following  year  was  chosen  to  the 
State  Senate. 

While  a  member  of  the  House,  Reed  delivered 'a 
short  memorial  address  upon  William  Pitt  Fessenden. 
He  began  by  saying:  "The  regard  and  affection  which 
I  had  for  Mr.  Fessenden  while  he  lived  render  it  neces 
sary  that  I  should  say  a  few  words  to-day.  My  only 
fear  is  that  I  may  be  doing  less  justice  to  the  dead  than 
if  I  remain  silent.  .  .  .  He  occupied  many  high  posi- 


36  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

tions  and  he  occupied  none  which  he  did  not  fill."  He 
eulogized  Fessenden  as  a  public  speaker,  and  praised 
the  "wit  and  wisdom  of  his  talk  and  the  brilliance  of 
his  thought  and  action." 

One  of  his  longest  speeches  made  in  either  house 
was  against  capital  punishment,  and  his  speech  is  well 
worth  reading  to-day.  After  presenting  in  a  striking 
fashion  most  of  the  old  arguments  and  some  new 
ones  in  favor  of  his  contention,  he  referred  to  his 
colleague  who  had  "brought  before  the  House  the 
opinions  of  the  assembled  divines  of  Cumberland 
County."  He  did  not  hesitate  to  express  himself 
pretty  strongly  about  the  action  of  this  powerful  body 
of  men,  even  though  they  came  from  his  own  county. 

They  declare  that  capita,!  punishment  alone  is  "consonant 
with  the  revealed  will  of  God."  I  do  not  purpose  to  answer 
them  or  the  many  texts  of  Scripture  which  have  been  quoted. 
There  are  times  when  men  wrest  Scripture  to  their  own 
destruction.  Past  history  ought  to  make  men  careful  how 
they  lightly  thrust  their  own  crude  notions  upon  the  God 
of  Mercy  and  Love,  who  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked.  Ever  since  Christ  died,  men  have  stood  up  and 
fought  God  with  texts  of  his  own  Scripture.  What  hoary 
wrong,  doomed  by  the  wrath  of  God,  has  there  ever  been, 
that  has  not  been  propped  up  during  its  last  years  by  texts 
of  Scripture!  You  all  remember  how  Paul  and  Onesimus 
bore  the  burden  of  slavery,  and  Paul  and  Timothy  were 
made  the  advocates  of  intemperance;  and  I  challenge  any 
man  to  produce  an  instance  of  any  reform  that  has  not  been 
met  by  this  misinterpretation,  misconstruction,  and  dese 
cration  of  God's  Word.  God's  law  as  given  to  Moses,  was 
given  to  conform  to  the  situation  of  the  people  at  that  time. 
Picking  up  sticks  on  the  Sabbath  was  a  capital  offense  under 
the  Mosaic  law.  They  required  peculiar  laws  for  they  were 


THOMAS   B.   REEU,  1871 


THE  NAVY  — EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER  37 

surrounded  by  peculiar  circumstances.  If  my  colleague  in 
sists  on  the  death  penalty  for  murder  as  a  divine  institution, 
why  not  for  the  thirty  and  more  other  crimes,  to  which  death 
was  meted  out  by  them  of  olden  time? 

In  the  Senate  he  opposed  a  bill  which  had  already 
passed  the  House,  authorizing  the  city  of  Portland  to 
loan  its  credit  to  a  railroad.  He  was  sharply  called  to 
account  for  his  opposition,  and  in  defense  he  declared 
his  unqualified  hostility  to  every  bill,  from  whatever 
quarter  it  might  come,  proposing  municipal  aid  to 
railroads.  After  he  retired  from  the  Legislature,  he 
adhered  to  the  same  position,  and  in  1871  he  appeared 
before  a  committee  of  the  Portland  city  council  to 
oppose  granting  aid  to  another  railroad.  In  the  course 
of  his  remarks  he  sarcastically  drew  the  conclusion 
that  "figures  done  up  in  the  form  of  estimates  some 
times  lie." 

The  sessions  of  the  Maine  Legislature  were  brief  in 
those  times,  and  his  service  did  not  materially  interfere 
with  his  law  practice.  His  legislative  service  and  the 
prominence  he  had  attained  in  his  profession  gave  him 
a  reputation  throughout  the  state,  and  while  still  a 
senator  he  was  selected  in  1870  by  the  Republican 
party  as  its  candidate  for  Attorney-General  of  the 
state,  and  was  chosen  at  the  ensuing  election.  He  had 
as  rival  candidates  for  the  nomination  two  lawyers  of 
high  standing,  one  of  whom,  General  Plaisted,  was 
afterwards  Governor  of  Maine.  At  the  time  Reed  was 
elected  Attorney-General  he  was  only  thirty  years  old, 
the  youngest  age  at  which  the  office  has  ever  been 


38  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

held  in  Maine.  His  three  years  of  service  in  the  office 
greatly  enriched  his  professional  experience  and  estab 
lished  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  Maine  bar.  There 
was  the  usual  work  incident  to  the  position  of  chief 
law-officer  of  the  state.  Among  the  more  notable  suits 
in  which  the  young  Attorney-General  participated 
were  a  sensational  murder  trial,  in  which  he  secured 
a  conviction,  and  a  recovery  of  money  due  the  state 
through  a  defalcation.  The  latter  case  affords  an  ex 
cellent  illustration  of  the  public-mindedness  and  in 
dependence  which  always  characterized  Reed.  The 
State  Treasurer  had  defaulted  for  a  large  amount  of 
money  more  than  ten  years  previously.  His  bondsmen, 
by  the  exercise  of  powerful  political  influence,  had 
avoided  prosecution  for  this  long  period.  Similar  influ 
ence  was  brought  to  bear  upon  Reed,  but  he  insisted 
on  bringing  the  delayed  cases  forward  for  trial,  with 
the  result  that  some  of  the  bondsmen  consented  to 
settlements  favorable  to  the  state  and  judgments  were 
secured  against  the  others. 

On  February  5, 1870,  Reed  married  Susan,  the  oldest 
daughter  of  Reverend  S.  H.  Merrill  of  Portland.  This 
union  was  destined  to  be  a  very  happy  one.  He  took 
his  wife  fully  into  his  confidence  in  his  public  work,  and 
she  became  his  best  critic,  whose  judgment  he  sought 
and  followed.  It  was  his  habit  to  rehearse  to  her  what 
ever  he  wrote  or  proposed  to  speak  upon  important 
occasions.  Among  his  unpublished  manuscripts  is  one, 
brilliant  but  rather  denunciatory  in  tone,  which  bears 
upon  it  the  note  in  his  handwriting,  "Not  published, 


N 


THE  NAVY  — EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER  39 

by  order  of  madam."  The  great  intelligence  and  good 
sense  of  Mrs.  Reed  proved  of  the  highest  value  to  him 
in  his  work. 

On  June  18,  1874,  he  made  a  speech  before  the  Re 
publican  State  Convention  of  Maine.  He  defended 
President  Grant's  vetoes  of  the  inflation  measures  and 
declared  strongly  for  sound  money.  He  advocated  the 
payment  of  the  greenbacks  according  to  the  promise  of 
the  government  which  they  bore.  This  payment  was 
to  be  in  gold  and  silver.  "The  universal  consent  of  the 
world  has  fixed  upon  gold  and  silver  as  containing  that 
permanent  element  which  makes  it  [them]  the  fit  cir 
culating  medium  of  the  world,  and  all  mankind  are 
pretty  sure  to  be  wiser  than  any  one  man  or  any  one 
nation." 

After  his  service  as  Attorney-General,  Reed  devoted 
himself  entirely  to  his  law  practice  in  Portland,  which 
became  extensive.  He  had  established  himself  as  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  lawyers  in  Maine.  His  own  city 
was  at  the  time  involved  in  important  litigation  and  he 
was  selected  by  the  mayor  as  its  counsel,  and  until  he 
went  to  Washington  he  held  the  office  of  city  solicitor. 
During  the  next  few  years  he  led  the  life  of  a  busy 
lawyer,  and  during  all  that  time  he  numbered  Portland 
among  his  clients. 

But  his  professional  career,  which  he  had  so  success 
fully  entered  upon,  was  destined  to  a  long  interruption. 
In  1876  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Republican 
nomination  for  Representative  in  Congress,  and  a 
spirited  campaign  was  made  throughout  the  district. 


40  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

The  district  was  composed  of  the  counties  of  York  and 
Cumberland.  The  "locality  "  argument  was  against 
him,  and  it  has  been  a  powerful  argument  in  our  poli 
tics.  As  he  wrote  at  another  time:  "In  politics,  if  you 
want  to  defeat  a  man  because  he  is  a  bad  lot,  a  thief, 
or  a  knave,  don't  say  that;  explain  how  he  comes  from 
the  wrong  town." 1  The  sitting  member  was  from 
York,  and  it  was  claimed  by  his  friends  that  he  was 
entitled  to  another  nomination  because  the  representa 
tive  had  been  chosen  from  Cumberland  County,  where 
Reed  lived,  much  more  than  its  proportionate  share  of 
time.  An  appeal  was  taken  to  the  lofty  spirit  of  county 
chauvinism.  The  candidacy  of  Reed  was  pressed  on 
the  single  ground  of  his  high  fitness  for  the  office,  and 
compared  with  that  the  county  argument  was  a  very 
trivial  one.  The  counties  could  have  no  real  antago 
nistic  interests  in  Washington,  but  it  would  be  for  the 
advantage  of  both  of  them,  and  also  of  the  country,  to 
be  represented  by  their  strongest  man.  Mr.  Burleigh, 
the  sitting  member,  had  weakened  himself  politically 
by  a  proceeding  which  was  entirely  to  his  honor.  The 
Kittery  Navy  Yard  was  situated  in  the  county  in 
which  he  lived,  and  he  had  caused  an  investigation  of 
alleged  corruption  in  connection  with  it.  By  this  action 
he  had  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  most  powerful 
politicians  of  his  party  in  Maine. 

Reed's  standing  with  his  neighbors  was  shown  by 
the  result  in  Portland.   That  city  decided  for  him  at 
the  caucuses  by  1047  votes  to  393,  and  elected  a  dele- 
1  Saturday  Evening  Post. 


THE  NAVY  — EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER    41 

gation  unanimously  favorable  to  his  nomination.  The 
Congressional  Convention  was  held  on  June  29,  1876. 
The  York  delegates  attempted  to  have  the  Conven 
tion  pass  a  resolution  that  York  was  entitled  to  the 
nomination.  This  was  antagonized  by  a  resolution  of 
fered  by  one  of  Reed's  friends  to  the  effect  that  each 
congressional  district  was  a  unit,  that  any  attempt  to 
limit  the  choice  to  any  particular  section  of  the  district 
would  tend  to  create  sectional  discord  and  strife,  and 
would  degrade  the  office  by  making  the  incumbent  the 
representative  of  local  and  private  interests  instead  of 
the  whole  constituency,  and  that  the  interests  of  the 
district,  the  state,  and  the  nation  only  should  be  con 
sidered.  There  was  a  warm  debate  over  this  resolution. 
A  York  County  delegate,  who  was  described  by  Reed's 
chief  newspaper  supporter  as  a  "peppery  little  man," 
declared  that  the  delegation  from  Portland  was  "elected 
by  and  represented  a  rabble."  This  declaration  was 
received  by  cheers  from  the  one  party  and  hisses  from 
the  other.  After  more  of  the  same  sort  the  orator  con 
cluded  with  the  statement  that  the  business  men  of 
the  county,  the  young  men,  and  the  farmers  "  would 
vote  the  Democratic  ticket  before  they  would  vote  for 
Mr.  Reed";  and  then  amid  hisses  he  took  his  seat. 

This  stormy  speech  was  a  not  very  gracious  recog 
nition  of  the  fact  that  Reed's  friends  were  in  a  major 
ity.  And  so  it  turned  out,  for  Reed  received  134  votes, 
to  121  for  all  other  candidates.  Upon  being  informed 
of  his  nomination  he  appeared  before  the  Convention 
and  made  a  conciliatory  speech. 


42  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

But  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  undertake  a  thor 
ough  canvass  of  the  district,  which  was  not  very 
strongly  Republican  even  when  the  party  was  united. 
The  friends  of  the  defeated  candidate  did  not  submit 
gracefully  and  some  of  them  organized  a  bolt  in  his 
favor.  They  issued  a  proclamation,  the  strong  point  of 
which  was  his  record  in  regard  to  the  Custom-House 
investigation.  There  was,  however,  so  much  unfairness 
in  the  document,  especially  in  its  attempted  deprecia 
tion  of  Reed,  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  did  not  help 
the  latter  more  than  it  harmed  him.  It  charged  him 
with  being  a  "comparatively  young  man,  with  but 
limited  experience.  He  is  not  directly  connected  with 
either  of  the  great  business  interests  of  the  district.  In 
his  own  profession  he  does  not  stand  preeminent.  He 
is  not  the  man  Cumberland  County  w^ould  have 
brought  forward  if  she  had  been  called  on  to  name  her 
choice."  The  Portland  "Advertiser,"  which  was  the 
leading  newspaper  supporter  of  Mr.  Burleigh  in  the 
canvass  for  the  nomination,  but  which  supported  Reed 
after  the  convention  had  been  held,  in  discussing  the 
manifesto  pointed  out  that  Portland  had  given  Reed 
1096  votes  as  against  only  393  for  Mr.  Burleigh,  and 
admitted  that  "Mr.  Reed  is  a  young  man,  but  not  too 
young  to  have  distinguished  himself  in  an  arduous  and 
crowded  profession.  If  not  preeminent,  he  is  at  least 
eminent  at  the  bar." 

But  the  burning  county  issue  raged  throughout  the 
campaign  and  a  good  deal  of  bitterness  was  shown. 
There  were  some  antagonisms  also,  which  a  man  of 


THE  NAVY  — EARLY  POLITICAL  CAREER  43 

Reed's  powerful  personality  would  be  likely  to  arouse. 
And  in  addition  to  all  the  other  difficulties  the  Repub 
licans  of  Maine  were  keenly  disappointed  over  the 
failure  of  their  fellow-citizen,  James  G.  Blaine,  after  a 
memorable  contest,  to  secure  the  presidential  nomina 
tion  in  the  Convention  which  had  just  been  held  at 
Cincinnati.  Although  Blaine  had  received  the  votes  of 
a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  Convention  upon 
different  ballots,  his  full  strength  was  not  marshaled 
upon  any  single  ballot,  and  he  failed  of  the  nomination 
by  an  extremely  narrow  margin.  Nowhere  did  he  have 
friends  more  devoted  to  him  than  in  his  own  state,  and 
there  was  danger  that  resentment  at  his  defeat  might 
cause  the  loss  to  his  party  of  a  considerable  number  of 
votes.  But  the  course  which  Blaine  pursued  quickly 
dispelled  this  danger.  He  loyally  supported  the  candi 
dates  of  his  party. 

The  election  of  state  officers  and  members  of  Con 
gress  was  held  in  Maine  in  early  September,  in  advance 
of  the  elections  in  nearly  all  the  states.  The  strategic 
importance  of  the  result,  which  the  winning  party 
might  make  much  of  throughout  the  country,  in 
creased  the  interest  in  the  contest  and  augmented  the 
efforts  of  both  parties  to  secure  the  victory.  Maine 
became  a  great  battlefield,  and  leading  party  orators 
were  summoned  from  other  states  to  take  part  in  the 
struggle.  Reed  canvassed  his  district  very  thoroughly, 
going  from  town  to  town,  speaking  at  meetings  both 
large  and  small,  and  very  much  extending  his  personal 
acquaintance  with  his  future  constituents.  The  prime 


44  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

factor  in  making  his  campaign  successful  was  his  abil 
ity  in  political  discussion.  In  that  field  in  his  state  he 
easily  shone  without  a  rival,  and  it  would  have  been 
difficult  to  find  his  equal  in  the  country  anywhere. 

His  speeches  in  the  campaign  did  not  at  all  lack  in 
partisanship.  Those  were  the  times  of  high  partisan 
feeling  and  Reed  did  not  disappoint  his  audiences;  but 
apparently  he  had  little  to  say  about  the  war  issues  and 
discussed  the  questions  that  were  particularly  before 
the  country.  He  ridiculed  the  claim  of  the  Democratic 
party  that  it  was  in  favor  of  civil  service  reform.  He  de 
nounced  its  attitude  on  the  question  of  the  currency, 
declaring  that  it  had  shown  itself  the  friend  of  repudi 
ation.  It  took  Tilden,  he  declared,  forty -two  days  and 
forty-two  nights  to  write  his  letter  of  acceptance,  — 
"just  two  days  and  two  nights  longer  than  the  Del 
uge,"  —  and  they  might  consider  themselves  fortu 
nate  that  he  did  not  write  more. 

The  result  of  it  all  was  that  the  proportions  of  the 
"bolt"  steadily  dwindled,  and  although  some  mem 
bers  of  his  party  were  misled  into  giving  a  vote  which 
they  lived  to  regret,  Reed  was  elected  by  about  1000 
plurality  in  a  total  vote  reaching  31,000.  Thus  the 
small  margin  by  which  he  had  been  nominated  was 
repeated  at  the  election,  and  he  started  upon  his 
career  as  a  national  statesman. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FIRST   SERVICE   IN  CONGRESS 

THE  election  of  1876  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr. 
Hayes  as  President,  after  a  contest  which  was  con 
tinued  after  the  election  and  was  not  decided  until  the 
very  eve  of  the  inauguration.  The  election  resulted 
also  in  a  House  of  Representatives  which  was  Demo 
cratic  by  a  small  majority  and  it  was  this  House  of 
which  Reed  was  first  chosen  a  member. 

A  new  set  of  questions  came  to  the  front  with  the 
inauguration  of  Hayes,  and  those  important  issues 
which  were  old  took  on  a  much  modified  form.  The 
enormous  expenditures  of  the  War,  with  the  inflation 
of  the  currency  and  the  application  of  taxation  in 
nearly  every  conceivable  form,  had  resulted  in  govern 
mental  extravagance,  in  speculation,  and  unfortu 
nately  also  in  a  good  deal  of  corruption.  The  high 
purposes,  first  of  nationality  and  then  of  freedom, 
which  had  marked  the  prosecution  of  the  War,  and  the 
readjustments  which  followed  it,  had  engaged  the 
public  mind  upon  a  level  far  above  the  questions  relat 
ing  to  finance  and  to  the  ordinary  details  of  correct 
government;  and  while  it  was  engaged  in  its  lofty 
contemplations  there  was  an  ideal  opportunity  for 
pushing  questionable  schemes,  for  graft,  and  for  gross 
and  petty  thievery.  The  glory  of  the  flag  had  become 


46  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

so  exalted  that  it  would  cover  the  passage  of  any 
appropriation,  however  extravagant,  which  the  most 
indifferent  rhetoric  could  entangle  in  its  folds. 
;  Times  of  public  exaltation  are  in  danger  of  being 
also  times  of  corruption.  The  thrifty  patriot  keeps  his 
eye  upon  the  main  chance,  and  he  successfully  prose 
cutes  his  operations  upon  the  earth  while  the  heads 
of  those  about  him  are  among  the  clouds.  Abstract 
theory  and  a  species  of  idealism  with  little  qualifica 
tion  had  been  dominating  the  government.  The  doc 
trine  of  the  equality  of  all  men  was  rigorously  put  in 
practical  force  so  far  as  the  law  could  do  it,  and  the 
ballot  was  suddenly  conferred  upon  millions  of  un 
trained  men,  who  became  themselves  the  innocent  vic 
tims  of  a  system  which  gave  them  no  preliminary 
training  in  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  who  were  put 
to  a  test  which  no  other  race  under  similar  conditions 
could  have  endured.  While  the  inhabitants  of  the 
North  were  rejoicing  in  the  literal  application  of  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
were  in  their  own  minds  reveling  in  a  golden  age 
of  democracy,  industrious  politicians  were  using  the 
votes  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  in  the  South, 
only  recently  in  slavery  and  wholly  without  experience 
in  politics,  for  the  support  of  a  regime  of  plunder  to 
which  history  furnishes  no  parallel.  This  system  of 
robbery  had  been  checked  before  the  inauguration  of 
Mr.  Hayes,  but  much  remained  to  be  done  to  put  an 
end  to  it. 
The  national  currency  was  not  upon  a  sound  basis, 


THOMAS   B.    REED,  1876 


FIRST  SERVICE  IN   CONGRESS  47 

and  inflation  measures  had  been  brought  forward 
having  for  their  object  the  payment  of  the  national 
debt  in  greenbacks  and  the  issuing  of  more  paper 
money.  The  argument  that  the  greenback  was  good 
enough  for  the  soldier  who  risked  his  life,  and  should 
be  good  enough  for  the  bondholder  who  risked  only  his 
money,  was  taking  in  its  popular  appeal.  But  Grant 
was  the  last  man  to  cultivate  popularity  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  public  credit,  or  indeed  at  the  sacrifice  of 
any  sound  principle  of  government,  and  against  infla 
tion  he  had  steadily  interposed  his  veto.  The  currency 
had  not  reached  the  gold  basis  from  which  it  had  de 
parted  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Indeed  the  na 
tional  greenback  from  the  day  of  its  issue  had  never 
been  at  par  with  gold.  The  resumption  of  gold  pay 
ments  had  been  decreed  to  take  effect  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1879,  but  the  large  majority  of  both 
houses  of  Congress,  and  doubtless  also  of  the  people, 
at  the  moment  was  opposed  to  carrying  the  law  into 
effect,  and  strong  efforts  were  destined  to  be  made  for 
its  repeal. 

This  question  of  the  monetary  standard  continued, 
in  various  forms,  to  be  an  engrossing  one  during  Reed's 
entire  career  in  Washington.  In  addition  to  the  issues 
relating  to  the  suffrage  in  the  South,  the  civil  rights  of 
the  freedmen,  and  the  standard  of  value  of  money, 
other  practical  issues  were  coming  forward.  The 
destruction  of  the  spoils  system  and  the  establishment 
of  necessary  reforms  in  the  civil  service  were  among 
them.  These  questions  and  others  of  almost  equal 


48  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

difficulty  and  importance  were  pressing  upon  an 
administration  which,  unlike  any  of  its  predecessors, 
had  come  into  office  with  a  clouded  title.  To  this  cloud 
upon  the  title  the  President  soon  imparted  an  appear 
ance  of  solidity  by  recognizing  Democratic  state  gov 
ernments  in  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  as  a  result 
of  the  same  elections  in  which  Republican  electors  had 
been  chosen  and  to  which  he  himself  owed  his  power. 
The  Republican  critics  of  the  President  pointed  out 
that  the  Republican  governments  in  those  states  had 
been  elected  by  the  same  votes  as  had  been  the  electors 
supporting  the  President  himself.  If  the  title  of  the 
former  was  bad  it  was  urged  that  that  of  the  latter  was 
bad  also. 

But  the  President  did  not  assume  to  pass  upon  the 
title  of  the  state  officers.  He  determined  that  the  time 
had  come  to  put  a  stop  to  the  steady  use  of  Federal 
bayonets  in  order  to  sustain  the  reconstructed  govern 
ments,  and  that  the  states  themselves  should  decide 
between  claimants  to  state  office.  He  proceeded  upon 
the  theory  that  it  would  be  better  that  a  mistake 
should  be  made  by  state  tribunals  in  determining 
what  state  officers  had  been  chosen,  than  that  an 
extraordinary  Federal  power  should  be  constantly  in 
voked  and  the  army  permanently  employed  to  bolster 
up  the  claims  of  one  of  two  rival  state  legislatures.  He 
determined  to  require  that  a  state  government,  even 
if  legal  in  form,  should  show  its  ability  to  stand  alone. 

The  President  summoned  the  new  Congress  to  meet 
in  special  session  on  October  15,  1877.  This  was  made 


FIRST  SERVICE   IN   CONGRESS  49 

necessary  because  of  the  failure  of  the  preceding 
Congress  to  pass  the  annual  appropriation  bill  for  the 
support  of  the  army.  This  refusal  to  pass  a  regular 
supply  bill  for  one  of  the  great  departments  of  the 
government  served  to  emphasize  the  political  passion 
of  the  time  and  the  issue  upon  which  there  was  perhaps 
the  most  acute  division.  The  size  and  expense  of  the 
army  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  refusal,  for 
it  was  small  and  the  appropriations  asked  for  were 
not  extravagant.  The  real  ground  of  opposition  on  the 
part  of  the  Democratic  House  in  the  preceding  Con 
gress  was  that  the  army  had  been  employed  to  main 
tain  Republican  state  governments  in  the  South.  How 
ever,  it  was  necessary  that  there  should  be  an  army, 
and  accordingly  the  President  called  Congress  together. 
At  the  assembling  of  this  Congress,  Reed  first  took 
the  oath  of  office  as  a  Representative.  He  found  him 
self  in  a  distinguished  company  of  men.  Among  his 
colleagues  from  his  own  state  were  William  P.  Frye 
and  Eugene  Hale,  then  near  the  beginning  of  careers 
of  public  service  destined  to  be  of  great  length  and 
highly  honorable  to  themselves  and  the  country. 
Among  the  other  members  were  S.  S.  Cox,  Clarkson 
N.  Potter,  and  Frank  Hiscock  of  New  York;  Samuel  J. 
Randall,  W.  D.  Kelley,  and  W.  S.  Stenger  of  Penn 
sylvania;  J.  Randolph  Tucker  of  Virginia;  Alexander 
H.  Stephens  and  James  H.  Blount  of  Georgia;  H.  D. 
Money  and  Charles  E.  Hooker  of  Mississippi;  J.  War 
ren  Keifer,  Charles  Foster,  Thomas  Ewing,  William 
McKinley,  and  James  A.  Garfield  of  Ohio;  J.  Proctor 


50  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

Knott,  John  G.  Carlisle,  and  J.  C.  S.  Blackburn  of 
Kentucky;  Carter  H.  Harrison,  H.  C.  Burchard,  Wil 
liam  M.  Springer  and  Joseph  G.  Cannon  of  Illinois; 
Richard  P.  Bland  of  Missouri;  Omar  D.  Conger  of 
Michigan;  John  H.  Reagan,  D.  B.  Culberson,  and  R. 
Q.  Mills  of  Texas;  W.  W.  Crapo,  B.  F.  Butler,  W.  A. 
Field,  N.  P.  Banks,  George  B.  Loring,  and  George  D. 
Robinson  of  Massachusetts.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  any  House  since  the  foundation  of  the  govern 
ment  contained  a  more  imposing  array  of  talent,  more 
men  who  were  destined  to  win  high  distinction  or  who 
had  already  achieved  it,  or  more  men  with  names  as 
splendid  in  our  parliamentary  history. 

The  Democrats  nominated  Mr.  Randall  for  Speaker, 
and  the  Republicans  Mr.  Garfield.  The  former  was 
chosen  by  a  vote  of  149  to  132. 

Reed  began  his  career  in  the  House  with  a  good  deal 
of  modesty.  In  accordance  with  the  rules  the  Speaker 
appointed  the  committees.  Those  to  which  Reed  was 
assigned  were  not  of  the  first  rank.  He  was  given  a 
place  on  the  Committee  on  Territories,  and  to  that 
was  soon  added  a  place  on  a  committee  of  still  less 
importance.  He  was  very  constant  in  his  attendance, 
and  it  was  rare  that  he  did  not  respond  upon  the  roll- 
call  except  upon  occasions  when  the  votes  of  Republi 
cans  were  withheld  for  purposes  of  filibustering.  At 
first  he  took  little  part  in  debate,  evidently  not  un 
mindful  of  the  fate  of  the  new  member  who  at  once 
attempts  to  assume  leadership,  and  is  too  ready  in  the 
expression  of  his  views.  He  took  no  public  part  in  the 


FIRST  SERVICE  IN   CONGRESS  51 

work  of  the  special  session  except  to  vote.  His  first 
speech  was  a  very  brief  one  and  was  made  at  the  regu 
lar  session  in  December  in  explanation  of  a  small  local 
bill  of  which  he  apparently  had  charge. 

On  the  18th  of  January,  1878,  his  state  presented 
to  the  government  a  statue  of  William  King,  and  it 
was  given  a  place  in  the  rather  miscellaneous  assort 
ment  of  works  of  art  in  Statuary  Hall.  This  occasion 
was  marked  by  speeches  in  both  the  Senate  and  the 
House.  In  the  course  of  the  exercises  in  the  Senate, 
Mr.  Elaine  reflected  upon  the  attitude  of  Massachu 
setts  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  became  involved  in  a 
controversy  with  the  Senators  from  Massachusetts. 
The  proceedings  in  the  House  were  more  uneventful, 
and  Reed  contributed  a  very  sober  speech,  excellent  in 
form,  treating  of  the  unsubstantial  character  of  fame, 
after  the  style  of  some  of  his  college  performances. 

We  all  know  too  sadly  well  [he  said]  that  oblivion  begins 
to  devour  the  mightiest  when  dead,  and  has  in  all  ages  been 
so  greedy  as  to  overtake  some  men  yet  living.  Human  fame, 
even  of  those  who  are  at  pains  to  preserve  their  memories,  is 
as  evanescent  as  the  cloud  of  a  summer  sky.  .  .  .  Hence  it  is 
that  the  State  of  Maine,  when  called  upon  to  place  in  the 
National  Hall  of  Statuary  the  figure  of  the  son  she  most 
willingly  remembers,  has  passed  by  men  of  his  time  certainly 
more  famous  but  not  greater,  and  chosen  William  King.  It 
seems  also  highly  fitting,  both  as  a  memorial  and  as  an  ex 
ample,  that  in  that  Hall  which  has  so  often  echoed  to  the 
voices  of  many  men  whose  fame  seemed  to  fill  the  country 
but  who  are  now  forgotten,  because  their  aims  were  selfish 
and  their  purposes  petty,  should  stand  the  statue  of  William 
King,  placed  there,  not  because  the  land  is  resonant  with  his 
name,  but  because  he  did  his  state  enduring  service. 


52  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

A  few  days  afterward  he  took  part  in  debate  upon  a 
bill  relating  to  navigation,  and  he  proposed  an  amend 
ment  which  was  adopted.  After  the  amendment  had 
been  carried,  the  Speaker  suggested  that  the  same 
result  could  be  obtained  by  striking  out  a  section  of  the 
bill,  and  Reed  dryly  replied  to  the  suggestion,  amid 
laughter  by  the  House,  "Inasmuch  as  my  amendment 
has  been  carried,  if  it  pleases  the  Chair,  I  do  not  like 
to  disturb  it."  He  voted  against  the  so-called  Bland- 
Allison  bill,  which  appeared  first  as  a  bill  for  the  free 
coinage  of  silver,  and  had  had  added  to  it  an  amend 
ment  which  changed  it  into  a  silver-purchase  bill. 
When  the  measure  was  vetoed  by  the  President,  Reed 
voted  to  sustain  the  veto,  although  the  House  voted 
against  the  President  by  nearly  three  to  one. 

His  speech  in  favor  of  an  amendment  increasing  the 
salaries  of  our  ministers  to  Great  Britain,  France, 
Germany,  and  Russia,  although  very  brief,  was  more 
interesting  than  any  speech  he  had  yet  made  in  the 
House.  He  said  in  the  course  of  it:  — 

We  have  been  so  niggardly  in  this  respect  altogether  that 
none  but  rich  men  can  afford  to  accept  these  positions.  For 
my  part,  I  shall  be  sorry  when  this  Government  reaches  such 
a  condition  that  its  most  important  and  dignified  offices 
can  be  filled  only  by  wealthy  men.  I  believe  that  persons 
whom  we  invite  to  do  service  for  us  in  foreign  countries 
should  be  paid  such  salaries  as  will  enable  them,  out  of  the 
emoluments  of  their  offices,  to  sustain  themselves  in  a  man 
ner  satisfactory  to  us. 

On  April  12,  1878,  a  bill  was  considered  in  the 
House  to  reimburse  William  and  Mary  College  for  the 


FIRST  SERVICE   IN   CONGRESS  53 

burning  of  its  principal  college  building  by  some 
drunken  stragglers  after  a  battle  in  the  Civil  War. 
The  measure  aroused  a  great  deal  of  interest  on  ac 
count  of  the  fame  of  the  College.  The  names  of  George 
Washington,  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Marshall,  and 
Winfield  Scott  had  been  borne  upon  its  roll  of  students. 
Sir  Christopher  Wren  had  been  its  architect.  Mr. 
George  B.  Loring  of  Massachusetts  made  an  eloquent 
speech  in  favor  of  the  appropriation.  Reed  made  his 
first  real  speech  in  the  House  in  reply  to  Loring.  He 
opposed  the  bill  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  a 
precedent  for  a  long  list  of  Southern  war-claims.  In 
the  course  of  this  speech,  he  said:  — 

It  seemed  to  me  strange  when  Washington  and  Jefferson 
and  Sir  Christopher  Wren  were  brought  in  to  decide  the 
question  whether  we  should  pay  sixty-five  thousand  dollars 
for  a  burned  building;  but  when  it  came  to  the  introduction 
of  Milton,  and  for  aught  I  know,  of  Luther  and  Locke,  I  con 
fess  I  was  astounded.  [Applause  and  laughter.]  We  heard  of 
Sir  Harry  Vane  and  Cromwell.  —  "Why,"  said  Cromwell, 
"the  Lord  deliver  me  from  Sir  Harry  Vane";  —  and  I 
say,  upon  a  question  of  this  kind,  the  Lord  deliver  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  from  Sir  Harry  Vane  and  Crom 
well  too. 

I  desire  this  American  Congress  to  consider  this  question 
in  the  light  of  reason  not  in  the  light  of  rhetoric.  —  "Oh," 
they  say,  "this  is  not  to  establish  a  precedent;  there  can  be 
nothing  like  it  again  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  Of  course  not, 
for  there  was  no  other  institution  that  ever  graduated  Wash 
ington;  there  was  no  other  building  in  this  country  that  Sir 
Christopher  Wren  ever  built;  there  is  no  other  institution  in 
which  Jefferson  was  educated;  and  certainly  there  is  none 
around  which  the  shades  of  Milton  and  Sir  Harry  Vane  and 
Cromwell  cluster  to  this  late  date.  But  all  these  matters  are 


54  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

immaterial;  they  are  the  ornamental  fringing;  they  are  not 
the  real  solid  facts  of  this  case. 

You  establish  a  precedent  when  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  proposes  to  pay  for  the  loss  and  unauthor 
ized  destruction  of  those  objects  deemed  sacred  by  the  laws 
of  war.  If  you  pass  this  bill  you  establish  that  principle, 
nothing  more,  nothing  less. 

Now,  if  you  establish  this  principle,  you  establish  a  prin 
ciple  that  no  other  nation  ever  had  the  inconceivable  folly 
and  imbecility  to  establish  since  the  beginning  of  time. 
Why,  the  whole  world  has  been  searched  through  and 
through  for  the  like  of  it  in  vain.  The  graceful  learning  of 
Massachusetts  has  twined  itself  with  the  rugged  and  inter 
esting  persistence  of  Virginia  in  its  search  for  a  parallel,  but 
to  no  purpose  whatsoever.  You  may  bring  together  Bunker 
Hill  and  Yorktown,  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  and  tie 
them  together  with  all  the  flowers  of  rhetoric  that  ever 
bloomed  since  the  Garden  of  Eden,  but  you  cannot  change 
the  plain,  historic  fact  that  no  nation  on  earth  ever  was  so 
imbecile  and  idiotic  as  to  establish  a  principle  that  would 
more  nearly  bankrupt  its  treasury  after  victory  than  after 
defeat. 


He  then  proceeded  to  review  the  precedents,  among 
them  one  relating  to  an  institution  of  learning  in 
Tennessee.  "It  was  situated  in  a  loyal  country.  Out 
of  its  halls  had  gone  no  officers  to  swell  the  ranks  of 
its  country's  foes.  From  the  chairs  of  its  professors 
the  doctrine  of  secession  had  never  been  preached;  the 
surrounding  population  had  never  been  tainted  by 
it."  A  bill  for  the  relief  of  this  institution  had  been 
passed  and  Grant  had  vetoed  it,  saying:  "If  the  prec 
edent  is  once  established  that  the  government  is  lia 
ble  for  the  ravages  of  war,  the  ends  of  demands  upon 
the  public  treasury  cannot  be  forecast." 


FIRST  SERVICE  IN  CONGRESS  55 

He  then  argued  that  William  and  Mary  College  had 
suffered  a  loss  of  property  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  for  seventy  years  had  pressed  the  claim  upon  the 
national  government,  and  the  government  had  refused 
to  entertain  it.  "The  statesmen  of  that  period  had  too 
much  wisdom  to  permit  this  government  to  be  con 
nected  with  any  principle  so  absurd  as  would  be 
established  by  this  bill."  He  said  that  one  thousand 
two  hundred  out  of  four  thousand  two  hundred  bills 
introduced  during  that  Congress  had  gone  to  the  War 
Claims  Committee,  and  other  large  claims  had  gone 
to  other  committees. 

There  is  but  a  step  between  paying  for  institutions  of 
learning  and  county  buildings,  and  paying  for  the  humble 
firesides  of  the  poor;  and  for  my  own  part  I  would  rather  pay 
for  the  latter  than  the  former.  Think  of  all  these  claimants 
translated  into  that  magnificent  upper  air  in  which  Massa 
chusetts  and  Virginia,  and  possibly  South  Carolina  alone  can 
live.  [Laughter  and  applause]  Just  think  of  them  in  that 
blue  empyrean,  surrounded  by  Washington  and  Jefferson 
and  dead  heroes,  and  Milton  and  Sir  Harry  Vane  —  and 
my  friend  from  Massachusetts  here  below  emblazoning  it 
all  in  gorgeous  language. 

When  the  claim  is  once  passed,  he  said,  it  will  be 
the  decision  people  will  look  to  and  not  the  arguments 
which  secured  it. 

The  arguments  will  all  be  printed,  they  will  make  part  of 
that  great  monumental  pile  of  eloquence  which  Congress  is 
rearing  at  the  rate  of  ten  volumes  every  year;  but  nobody 
will  read  them;  while  the  decision  will  be  sought  for  by  every 
claim  agent  who  loved  the  Lost  Cause  and  a  good  many  who 
did  not. 


56  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

He  said  that  he  approved  of  very  much  that  had 
been  said  upon  the  subject  of  sectional  feeling. 

I  do  believe  that  after  the  magnificent  contest  which  shook 
this  entire  Continent,  after  millions  of  men  had  been  in  the 
field  and  fought  each  other  face  to  face,  it  would  have  been 
a  pitiful  and  miserable  close  to  have  had  half-a-dozen  strug 
gling  wretches  kicking  out  their  lives  on  the  gallows.  Now, 
whatever  may  be  the  question  of  right  or  wrong  for  any 
individual,  the  only  justification  of  rebellion  is  success.  It 
involves  death  to  men  and  destruction  to  property.  You  do 
not  need  to  be  told  its  miseries,  for  you  have  suffered  them. 
Any  set  of  men  who  propose  to  plunge  their  people  into  these 
horrors  are  bound  to  be  successful  or  take  the  consequences. 
—  Why  will  you  not,  on  your  part,  show  a  disposition  to  let 
bygones  be  bygones,  and  let  us  have  rest  and  peace  and 
returning  prosperity. 

The  friends  of  the  College  denied  that  it  was  a  war 
claim.  Reed  interrupted  one  of  them  to  ask  if  he 
had  read  the  title  of  the  bill,  which  was,  "A  bill  to 
reimburse  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  for  dam 
ages,"  etc.  The  member  replied  that  he  understood 
that  the  friends  of  the  bill  intended  to  change  the 
title. 

REED:  "In  other  words,  my  friend  is  like  the  dea 
con  who  was  a  member  of  a  temperance  society,  who 
said  he  could  not  drink  cider,  but  if  they  would  call 
it  apple  juice  he  would  drink  it."  [Laughter.] 

The  exact  effect  of  Reed's  speech  upon  the  House 
cannot  be  known,  but  it  was  undoubtedly  great,  and 
the  friends  of  the  measure  were  not  able  to  secure  a 
vote  upon  it  during  that  Congress. 

As  this  was  the  first  occasion  on  which  Reed  made 


FIRST  SERVICE  IN   CONGRESS  57 

an  important  speech  to  the  House,  it  will  help  to  a 
better  understanding  of  the  quotations  from  his 
speeches  given  in  the  following  pages  to  refer  at  this 
point  to  his  appearance  and  manner  of  speaking.  He 
had  a  massive  figure.  He  stood  about  six  feet  two 
inches  in  height,  and  weighed  probably  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  pounds.  His  eyes  under  great  arches 
of  brow  were  hazel  and  were  large  and  brilliant.  They 
were  such  eyes  as  one  rarely  sees  and  stamped  him 
unmistakably  as  a  man  of  genius.  He  was  bald,  and  his 
head  and  face  were  of  such  a  type  as  to  lead  Henry- 
Irving  to  say  that  he  looked  like  the  Stratford  bust 
of  Shakespeare. 

He  spoke  slowly  and  with  a  slight  drawl.  His  voice 
was  powerful  and  penetrated  to  the  remotest  corner 
of  the  enormous  hall  of  the  House.  He  rarely  made  a 
gesture.  There  was  never  anything  tense  or  heated  in 
his  manner.  His  sentences  fell  from  his  lips  in  faultless 
form,  but  as  if  they  did  that  of  their  own  accord,  and 
without  any  air  of  precision  or  the  least  apparent 
effort  on  his  own  part.  There  was  that  in  his  look  and 
manner,  sometimes  called  magnetism,  for  want  of  a 
more  definite  term,  which  commanded  the  attention 
of  the  House  and  quickly  established  his  sway  over  it 
even  under  circumstances  the  most  adverse. 

An  illustration  of  this  quality  was  seen  in  his  reply 
later  to  Mr.  Bourke  Cockran,  at  a  time  when  the  latter 
was  in  the  flower  of  his  remarkable  oratory.  That  gen 
tleman  had  just  taken  his  seat  after  a  very  passionate 
and  eloquent  speech,  and  there  was  that  appearance  of 


58  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

exultation  on  his  own  side  of  the  House  and  of  dejec 
tion  on  the  other  side  which  is  sometimes  seen  after  a 
triumphant  partisan  speech  in  a  great  turbulent  assem 
bly  like  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  task  of 
replying  on  such  an  occasion  was  for  no  man  except 
one  of  the  first  class,  and  even  a  man  of  the  first 
class  might  need  to  labor  for  a  time  in  order  to  dis 
pel  the  vivid  impression,  and  dispose  the  House  to 
look  at  the  subject  from  his  own  point  of  view.  On 
this  occasion  Reed  arose,  calm  in  his  manner  and  with 
nothing  to  suggest  anxiety  or  excitement,  paused  a 
moment,  leveled  a  slashing  sarcasm  at  a  vulnerable 
part  of  the  performance  which  had  just  been  wit 
nessed,  and  before  he  had  uttered  two  sentences  he 
had  stirred  up  the  fighting  blood  of  his  own  side  and 
made  his  antagonists  conscious  that  it  was  their  turn 
to  be  on  the  defensive.  He  never  appeared  to  show 
the  slightest  concern  over  the  manner  of  his  speaking. 
And  powerful  as  he  showed  himself  to  be,  one  felt  that 
he  had  greater  strength  still  in  reserve. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   POTTER   INVESTIGATION 

THE  peaceable  settlement  of  the  controversy  over  the 
election  of  President  and  the  inauguration  of  Hayes 
had  not  taken  the  question  out  of  politics.  The  Demo 
cratic  journals  were  constantly  putting  forth  the  claim 
that  the  electoral  votes  of  Louisiana,  South  Carolina, 
and  Florida  had  been  secured  for  the  Republican  can 
didates  through  the  grossest  frauds.  Mr.  Tilden  had 
received  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  uncontested 
votes,  or  within  one  of  the  number  required  to  elect 
him.  It  was  necessary  for  Mr.  Hayes  to  receive  all  the 
other  votes,  including  those  of  the  three  states  just 
mentioned,  and  the  votes  of  those  states  had  been 
counted  for  Mr.  Hayes  under  the  decision  of  the  elec 
toral  commission. 

Mr.  Clarkson  N.  Potter  of  New  York  reported  a 
series  of  resolutions  to  the  House  containing  charges  of 
fraud  and  providing  for  a  committee  to  make  an  in 
vestigation  into  the  election.  After  an  exciting  parlia 
mentary  struggle,  continuing  for  four  days,  the  resolu 
tions  were  passed.  The  committee  created  by  them  was 
one  of  great  importance.  Among  the  Democrats  who 
were  appointed  to  it  were  the  ablest  men  in  that  party. 
Mr.  Potter  was  made  Chairman,  and  among  his  party 
associates  were  Morrison,  McMahon,  and  Blackburn* 


60  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

In  a  speech  in  the  next  Congress,  Reed,  referring  to 
the  Democratic  membership  of  the  Committee,  said: 

The  household  troops  had  been  ordered  up.  There  at  the 
head  was  a  polished  and  able  gentleman,  taken  some  years 
ago  from  our  ranks,  and  who  had  voted  with  us  often  enough 
since  to  give  the  people  the  idea  that  he  was  respectable  and 
to  be  trusted  —  a  gentleman  to  whose  fairness  and  impartial 
ity  in  everything  except  his  report  I  bear  cheerful,  cordial 
and  willing  witness.  Next  came  my  friend  from  Ohio  (Mr. 
McMahon) ,  keen  and  subtle,  than  whom  there  is  no  man  in 
five  kingdoms  abler  to  dig  a  pit  for  a  witness  and  sweetly 
coax  him  into  it.  And  then  to  give  a  tone  of  chivalry  to  it 
was  my  friend  from  the  Seventh  District  of  Kentucky  (Mr. 
Blackburn),  then  as  now  undallying  and  undoubting,  and 
consequently  undastardized  and  undamned.  Time  would  fail 
me  to  give  an  Homeric  catalogue  of  all  the  great  souls  of 
heroes  who  went  down  to  dusty  death.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  they  were  the  bright,  consummate  flower,  the  cream, 
or,  to  use  a  metaphor  more  suitable  to  the  subject,  the  com 
bined  sweetness  and  strength,  the  very  "rock  and  rye"  of 
the  democracy.  [Laughter.] 

That  Reed  had  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the 
House  during  his  few  months  of  service  was  shown  by 
the  fact  that  he  was  named  as  one  of  the  four  Republi 
can  members  of  this  committee.  One  of  his  colleagues 
was  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler  of  Massachusetts. 
A  stronger  combination  than  that  of  these  two  men  in 
a  rough-and-tumble  political  contest  could  not  have 
been  found.  Reed  once  characterized  Butler  as  "  pow 
erful,  effective,  courageous  and  full  of  resources,  and 
yet  seldom  really  victorious."  1  But  General  Butler 
was  in  a  state  of  transition,  at  that  time  very  far  ad- 
1  Youth's  Companion,  December  8,  1898. 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  61 

vanced,  from  the  Republican  to  the  Democratic  party, 
and  he  was  destined  very  shortly  to  appear  as  the  can 
didate  of  the  latter  party  for  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts.  He  took  a  middle  course  in  the  work  of  the 
committee,  and  in  the  end  made  a  finding  which  sus 
tained  the  claim  that  Tilden  had  been  elected.  It  is  no 
disparagement  of  Reed's  other  two  colleagues,  whose 
Republicanism  was  above  suspicion,  to  say  that  he  was 
the  best  qualified  of  the  Republican  members  for  the 
particular  work  before  the  committee,  and  that  the 
brunt  of  it  fell  upon  him.  That  he  was  relied  upon 
by  the  Republican  leaders  to  take  an  important  part 
in  the  cross-examination  is  shown  by  the  following 
letter  to  him  from  Mr.  John  Sherman,  who  had  been 
especially  attacked  by  the  Democrats  for  the  part 
he  had  played  in  Louisiana  as  one  of  the  so-called  "vis 
iting  statesmen." 

June  5th,  1878. 

DEAR  SIR: — 

Upon  comparing  the  alleged  signature  to  "Exhibit  A," 
the  Weber  agreement,  with  the  genuine  signature  of  E.  A. 
Weber,  it  is  apparent  that  the  one  to  the  agreement  is  a  plain 
and  palpable  forgery,  and,  therefore,  Senator  Matthews  will 
commit  to  your  keeping  the  original  document  to  base  the 
cross-examination  upon. 

Press  him«(a)  to  the  allegation  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
signature. 

You  can  get  the  original  from  Senator  Matthews  in  the 
Senate  Chamber.  He  will  hand  it  to  you. 
Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  SHERMAN. 

HON.  THOMAS  B.  REED. 


62  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Reed  did  not  lack  for  material  much  more  novel  than 
that  to  which  the  public  had  been  accustomed  in  con 
nection  with  Southern  elections.  On  the  face  of  the 
original  returns  from  the  Louisiana  parishes,  the  Til- 
den  electors  appeared  to  have  been  chosen  by  more 
than  six  thousand  majority.  The  State  Returning 
Board,  which  had  judicial  power,  decided  that  there 
had  been  intimidation  in  certain  parishes  and  that  the 
colored  Republicans  had  been  so  thoroughly  terrorized 
that  they  were  afraid  to  vote.  The  returns  from  these 
parishes  were  rejected.  Enough  votes  were  thus 
thrown  out  in  the  whole  state  to  convert  the  Demo 
cratic  majority  of  more  than  six  thousand  on  the  origi 
nal  returns  into  a  Republican  majority  in  excess  of  four 
thousand.  The  testimony  was  voluminous,  and  I  shall 
only  refer  to  such  portions  of  it  as  will  serve  to  show 
the  important  part  played  by  Reed. 

The  principal  witness  for  the  Democrats  was  James 
E.  Anderson,  who  had  been  the  superintendent  of 
registration  in  one  of  the  parishes.  He  had  been  ap 
pointed  as  a  Republican,  and  by  virtue  of  his  office  he 
performed  important  duties,  not  only  before  the  elec 
tion  but  also  after  it.  His  official  return  showed  that 
the  vote  in  the  parish  had  been  about  2200  Democratic 
and  none  Republican.  Anderson  seems  to  have  had  a 
propensity  for  signing  contradictory  statements,  and 
was  not,  to  say  the  least,  an  impressive  witness.  In  one 
document  he  declared  that  the  election  in  his  parish 
had  not  been  fair  and  peaceable,  but  that  there  had 
been  violence  and  intimidation,  with  bands  of  armed 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  63 

men  riding  about  whipping  and  shooting  the  voters. 
A  few  days  afterwards  he  put  forth  another  paper] 
signed  also  by  the  supervisor  of  another  parish,  de 
claring  that  the  election  was  the  most  peaceable  and 
orderly  one  ever  witnessed  by  them,  and  that  the 
previous  statement  had  been  signed  at  the  request  of 
Republican  candidates  and  office-holders  for  the  pur 
pose  of  throwing  out  Democratic  votes.  He  declared 
that  bribes  in  the  form  of  offices  or  money  had  been 
offered  him  by  both  sides. 

With  such  a  wealth  of  material  Reed's  cross-exami 
nation  of  this  witness  was  destructive  in  its  effect,  and 
the  climax  was  reached  when  he  drew  from  him  the 
admission  that  he  had  purposely  misled  the  Senate 
Committee  before  which  he  had  testified.  The  Demo 
cratic  majority  in  its  report  declared  that  "it  was  un 
avoidable  from  the  character  of  those  concerned  that 
the  committee  should  be  exposed  to  mistake  and  im 
position,"  and  expressed  an  opinion  of  Anderson  that 
was  far  from  favorable.  In  a  speech  made  subsequently 
in  the  House  Reed  denounced  Anderson  in  a  very  di 
rect  fashion. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  here  to  review  at  length  the 
facts  regarding  the  Presidential  election  as  they  were 
brought  out  by  the  Potter  Committee.  They  would 
show  a  record  of  falsification  of  documents,  of  unblush 
ing  frauds,  of  intimidation,  of  bribery  and  attempted 
bribery,  and  even  of  murder,  which  make  as  disgrace 
ful  a  chapter  as  can  be  found  in  the  political  history 
of  America. 


64  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

So  far  as  the  elections  in  Louisiana  and  South  Caro 
lina  were  concerned,  there  was  presented  one  of  those 
cases  where  law  was  arrayed  against  civilization,  and 
where  men,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  latter,  did  not  hesitate  to  throw  the  former 
to  the  winds. 

But  the  investigation  of  the  cipher  telegrams  de 
serves  more  than  a  passing  reference,  because  in  that 
investigation  Reed  was  seen  at  his  best  as  a  cross-exam 
iner,  and  because  the  disclosures  made  in  the  course  of 
it  had  the  effect  of  destroying  as  a  practical  political 
issue  the  charges  of  fraud  in  connection  with  the  elec 
tion  of  1876.  The  cipher  investigation  had  an  enormous 
practical  effect.  The  House  was  Democratic.  The  Sen 
ate  was  hanging  in  the  balance.  Sherman  was  in  the 
midst  of  his  work,  at  the  time  unpopular,  preparing 
for  the  resumption  of  gold  payments.  The  industrial 
crisis  which  began  in  1873  was  still  resting  upon  the 
country.  Strikes  were  common.  The  rapid  building  of 
railroads  had  brought  vast  areas  of  new  land  under 
cultivation,  and  the  prices  of  agricultural  products 
were  depressed  and  the  farmers  were  poor.  The  only 
thing  necessary  to  produce  a  political  convulsion  would 
have  been  a  serious  dispute  over  the  title  to  the  presi 
dency.  And  such  a  dispute  could  be  academic  only 
and  not  in  any  degree  practical  after  the  disclosures 
contained  in  the  cipher  telegrams.  Shattered  by  cross- 
examination  as  had  been  the  testimony  showing  frauds 
in  Louisiana,  that  testimony  would  still  have  left  a 
most  disagreeable  impression  upon  the  public  mind, 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  65 

and  popular  opinion  might  have  supported  an  attempt 
to  set  aside  in  the  courts  the  somewhat  technical  and 
evasive  decision  of  the  Electoral  Commission,  a  de 
cision  which  did  not  go  behind  the  returns  to  the  evi 
dence,  and  which  had  been  reached  by  all  the  judges 
voting  in  the  line  of  their  respective  political  beliefs. 
But  after  the  contents  of  the  cipher  telegrams  became 
known  all  danger  of  a  litigated  title  was  at  an  end.  To 
the  new  member  from  Maine  must  be  accorded  a  large 
share  of  credit  for  the  cross-examination  with  which  he 
illuminated  the  case  as  well  upon  the  cipher  telegrams 
as  upon  the  claims  of  fraud. 

Those  telegrams  undoubtedly  revealed  an  attempt 
to  purchase  enough  electoral  votes  to  make  certain  the 
election  of  Mr.  Tilden.  The  excuse  for  the  attempt  was 
boldly  avowed  to  be  that  it  was  justifiable  to  ransom 
stolen  goods  from  robbers,  and  that  it  was  an  effort  to 
buy  back  votes  from  the  thieves  who  had  stolen  them. 
A  large  mass  of  dispatches  had  been  brought  before 
the  investigating  committees  of  the  two  Houses  by  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  in  response  to 
subpoenas.  Most  of  them  were  in  unintelligible  cipher 
and  for  a  considerable  time  little  attention  was  paid  to 
them.  But  two  clever  writers  for  the  New  York  "Tri 
bune"  were  able  to  translate  many  of  them,  and  their 
contents  were  seen  to  be  of  a  startling  character.  A 
resolution  passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
particularly  instructed  the  Potter  Committee  to  in 
vestigate  these  ciphers,  and  that  work  was  entered 
upon  in  the  most  thorough  fashion. 


66  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

On  account  of  the  part  shown  to  have  been  played 
by  Mr.  Pelton,  who  was  Mr.  Tilden's  nephew  and 
lived  in  his  house,  Reed  conceived  the  notion  that 
Tilden  was  not  without  responsibility  in  regard  to 
them.  He  proposed  in  the  House  a  resolution  that 
Tilden  be  permitted  to  be  represented  by  counsel 
before  the  Committee.  This  resolution  was  defeated. 
The  Democratic  members  were  not  willing  to  concede 
that  Tilden  was  on  trial. 

Reed  in  his  cross-examination  drew  from  Pelton  the 
admission  that  he  lived  at  the  residence  of  his  uncle; 
that  he  had  been  his  military  secretary  for  two  years 
at  Albany,  when  Tilden  was  Governor  of  New  York; 
that  he  was  not  a  man  of  large  property,  and  did 
not  have  the  sums  called  for  by  the  cipher  dispatches. 
Reed  quoted  from  one  of  the  mildly  incriminating  dis 
patches  and  asked  Pelton  if  he  showed  that  to  his 
uncle.  Pelton  replied  that  he  did  not.  Reed  then  ob 
served,  "I  suppose  it  was  owing  to  that  wicked  sen 
tence  in  it  —  *  Answer  to  question  asked  this  morning 
—  important  to-night*  —  that  you  did  not  show  it." 

Taking  another  dispatch,  Reed  asked  Pelton  if  he 
showed  that  to  his  uncle,  and  he  replied  that  he  did 
not.  Reed  then  asked  whether  his  reluctance  to  con 
sult  his  uncle  in  regard  to  it  had  its  origin  in  the  ex 
pression  which  he  had  put  into  the  telegram  —  "The 
expense  of  what  you  do  will  be  met."  Pelton  refused 
to  admit  that  he  had  consulted  his  uncle  and  said 
it  was  not  a  matter  that  there  was  any  necessity  to 
consult  him  about. 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  67 

You  felt  that  you  could  go  on  and  buy  a  State  or  two  with 
out  consulting  him? 
I  never  consulted  him  about  such  things  at  all,  sir. 

Reed  pressed  the  witness  on  the  point  whether 
Tilden  saw  any  of  the  telegrams  and  secured  the  ad 
mission  that  he  saw  some. 

Did  he  never  happen  to  call  for  these  wicked  ones?" 
He  never  knew  of  their  existence. 

Reed  then  turned  to  a  dispatch  in  the  translation  of 
which  occurred  the  sentence:  "If  the  Returning  Board 
can  be  procured  absolutely,  will  you  deposit  thirty 
thousand  dollars?"  and  asked, — 

Did  you  show  that  to  your  uncle? 

No,  sir. 

Where  did  you  receive  it? 

I  have  no  means  of  fixing  it;  but  either  at  the  Everett 
House  or  at  Liberty  Street. 

^  Was  not  this  quite  a  little  event,  this  statement  that  a 
State  could  be  bought  for  thirty  thousand  dollars,  when  you 
were  rather  anxious  about  that  time  to  get  a  State? 

Pelton  could  not  fix  the  place  where  he  received  it. 
Then  taking  another  telegram  containing  the  question: 
"Shall  I  increase  to  fifty  thousand  if  required  to  make 
sure?"  Reed  asked,  "Did  you  show  that  to  your 
uncle?" 

"No,  sir." 

Referring  to  another  dispatch  which  concluded: 
"Tell  Russia  [that  is  Tilden]  to  saddle  Blackstone," 
Pelton  replied  to  Reed  that  he  did  not  remember  show 
ing  that  to  Tilden. 


68  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Was  there  anything  by  the  name  of  Blackstone  that  could 
be  saddled  about  Mr.  Tilden's  premises? 

Yes,  sir,  Mr.  Tilden  had  a  horse  by  the  name  of  Black- 
stone. 

Then  it  may  have  meant  that  he  take  gentle  exercise,  may 
it  not? 

It  may. 

Did  you  hesitate  to  communicate  to  Governor  Tilden  a 
request  that  was  sent  all  the  way  from  Florida,  that  he 
should  take  gentle  exercise?  Were  you  that  tender  of  your 
uncle? 

I  think  I  must  have  taken  that  responsibility. 

Thus  throughout  a  long  cross-examination  Reed 
kept  bringing  dispatches  proposing  the  purchase  of 
electors,  to  Pelton's  attention,  and  persisted  in  asking 
him  whether  Governor  Tilden  knew  of  their  existence. 
Pelton  denied  that  he  had  ever  brought  these  dis 
patches  to  Tilden's  attention. 

Cooper  had  spoken  to  Tilden  of  the  attempt  to  pur 
chase  the  South  Carolina  electors,  and  Tilden  ex 
pressed  indignation,  and  summoned  his  nephew  back 
from  Baltimore.  Reed  then  asked :  — 

Well,  so  far  as  you  know,  the  scheme  first  received 
reprobation  when  Mr.  Cooper  was  indiscreet  enough  (from 
your  point  of  view)  to  mention  it  to  your  uncle? 

That  is  my  understanding. 

It  never  received  any  reprobation  until  thatfttime,  when  it 
came  within  the  purview  of  your  uncle's  sense  of  propriety, 
and  as  soon  as  it  did,  it  was  crushed  out.  State  how  soon 
after  that  you  left  your  uncle's  house,  —  whether  or  not  it 
was  prior  to  the  Florida  negotiations? 

How  do  you  mean  —  left  the  house? 

Did  you  not  cease  to  reside  there  after  the  South  Carolina 
transaction  and  prior  to  the  Florida  negotiations. 

No,  sir. 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  69 

Then  you  carried  on  the  Florida  negotiations  while  you 
resided  in  your  uncle's  house? 

Yes,  sir. 

And  you  did  it  after  this  pointed  rebuke  which  you  had 
received  from  your  uncle  for  your  conduct  in  the  South 
Carolina  matter? 

Yes,  sir. 

And  in  defiance  of  his  wishes? 

Yes,  sir. 

Then  at  the  time  the  Florida  transaction  was  entered  into, 
you  knew  that  your  uncle,  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
the  presidency,  disapproved  of  it  on  moral  grounds,  and  you 
knew  that  Mr.  Cooper,  who  was  Treasurer  of  the  Demo 
cratic  National  Committee,  also  objected  to  it  on  moral 
grounds? 

Yes,  objected  to  it. 

Where  then,  did  you  intend  to  get  the  money  to  do  the 
Florida  business  with? 

Well,  I  intended  when  the  matter  was  consummated,  to 
lay  it  before  the  National  Committee  and  let  them  take  such 
action  as  they  chose. 

What,  after  this  conversation  with  Mr.  Cooper? 

Yes. 

Mr.  Manton  Marble  had  written  a  letter  known  as 
the  "Ark  and  Shekina  letter,"  charging  Republicans 
with  attempting  to  use  money;  and  cipher  telegrams 
were  afterwards  produced  from  Mr.  Marble  himself 
which  seriously  required  explanation.  Referring  to  a 
meeting  between  Marble  and  Pelton,  after  the  return 
of  the  former  from  Florida,  and  pointing  his  questions 
with  quotations  from  the  "Ark  and  Shekina"  letter, 
Reed  asked  if  Marble  told  the  witness  anything  about 
"traces  of  money  payment  being  darkly  visible"  or 
anything  of  that  sort;  or  did  he  not  use  that  language 
in  private  conversation;  and  did  the  witness  and  Marble 


70  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

talk  about  what  might  be  the  consequences  if  the  mat 
ter  "got  into  the  keen  bright  sunlight  of  publicity"; 
and  did  he  say  anything  to  witness  about  the  "final 
citadel  of  power,"  or  about  the  "  ague-smitten  parish  " 
that  might  be  bought;  and  "when  you  and  he  met,  how 
broad  a  smile  did  you  have  on  your  countenance?" 

Mr.  Tilden  afterwards  appeared  as  a  witness  before 
the  Committee  and  denied  any  complicity  in  the  tele 
grams  or  in  the  transactions  to  which  they  related. 

Reed's  part  in  the  investigation  was  conspicuous 
enough  to  win  for  him  the  enthusiastic  approval  of  the 
newspapers  of  his  party  and  the  unsparing  denuncia 
tion  of  the  Democratic  journals.  His  handling  of  the 
ciphers,  and  his  wringing  from  the  most  important 
witness  against  him  in  the  Louisiana  case  admissions 
extremely  damaging,  gave  little  support  to  their  criti 
cisms  that  he  played  the  role  of  a  shyster,  that  he  was 
ill-trained  and  had  little  adaptability  of  mind. 

In  making  its  decision  the  Committee  was  divided 
upon  party  lines,  each  member  finding  in  accordance 
with  the  position  of  his  party,  excepting  General  But 
ler,  who  took  a  middle  ground,  although  he  vindi 
cated  Sherman. 

The  following  portions  of  the  minority  report  were 
very  evidently  written  by  Reed:  "When  the  parties 
to  the  attempted  bribery  were  put  upon  the  stand, 
they  were  forced  to  admit  the  receipt  and  transmis 
sion  of  the  criminating  dispatches,  each  and  all  of 
them."  After  speaking  of  the  part  played  by  the  chief 
parties,  the  report  proceeded :  — 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  71 

The  idea  that  this  penniless  man,  Mr.  Pelton,  living  in  the 
house  and  seated  at  the  very  table  of  his  wealthy  uncle,  Mr. 
Tilden,  should  have  conducted  negotiations  involving  such 
large  sums  without  word  or  hint  to  the  man  most  deeply  in 
terested,  or  to  anybody  else,  cannot  for  a  moment  be  enter 
tained  by  candid  men. 

It  has  been  urged  in  Mr.  Tilden's  behalf,  that  as  soon 
as  he  became  aware  of  the  South  Carolina  negotiations  he 
promptly  suppressed  them,  and  we  are  asked  to  draw  the 
inference  that  he  was  guiltless  of  all. 

Had  these  transactions  ceased  when  Hardy  Solomons 
went  home,  had  Pelton  been  discharged  from  his  plenary 
superintendence  of  Mr.  Tilden's  affairs,  there  might  have 
been  some  show  of  reason  in  this  plea.  But  Mr.  Pelton 
remained  in  full  control,  the  Florida  negotiations  went  on, 
the  attempted  bribery  in  Oregon  followed,  all  under  the 
guidance  of  the  resident  nephew,  Mr.  Pelton.  .  .  .  Pelton 
says  he  told  Cooper  not  to  tell  Tilden.  That  night,  Cooper 
did  not,  but  on  reflection  the  next  day,  probably  thinking 
that  he  had  already  over-advanced,  and  that  if  Mr.  Tilden 
wanted  the  presidency  in  that  way  he  had  better  pay  for  it 
himself,  he  went  to  Mr.  Tilden.  Of  course  Mr.  Tilden  could 
take  part  in  no  such  open  transaction  as  it  had  now  be 
come.  Colonel  Pelton  was  called  home,  a  wiser  and  more 
secretive  man." 

The  report  concludes  by  giving  reasons  in  favor 
of  the  claim  that  the  Republicans  honestly  carried 
Louisiana.  It  referred  to  the  well-known  violence  that 
had  taken  place  and  to  the  undisputed  Democratic 
circular  issued  during  the  campaign  in  Louisiana,  ad 
vising  the  parade  of  Democratic  clubs  on  horseback 
and  their  marching  as  organized  bodies  to  the  central 
rendezvous,  for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the  negroes 
with  the  sense  of  their  united  strength,  and  recom 
mending  a  systematic  warning  to  the  negroes  that  "We 


72  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

have  the  means  of  carrying  the  election  and  mean  to 
use  them." 

The  report  of  the  Democratic  majority  of  the  Com 
mittee  was  to  the  effect  that  Tilden  had  carried  the 
state.  As  to  the  cipher  telegrams,  their  conclusion  was 
that  while  Tilden's  particular  friends  were  concerned 
in  the  transaction,  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  them, 
but  that  there  was  a  display  of  "mistaken  zeal  of  his 
followers  and  friends  without  authority  on  his  part." 
The  report  was  not  presented  to  the  House  until  very 
nearly  the  end  of  the  Congress  and  no  formal  debate 
took  place  upon  it. 

As  a  campaign  topic,  the  election  of  1876  received 
far  less  discussion  after  the  investigation  of  the  Com 
mittee  than  before  it.  That  this  was  true  was  due 
doubtless  to  the  disclosures,  and  especially  those  re 
lating  to  the  cipher  telegrams.  The  subject  however 
was  occasionally  discussed  in  the  House,  and  during 
the  next  Congress  Reed  made  a  brief  and  most  effect 
ive  speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Davis,  a  Democrat  from 
North  Carolina,  who  had  introduced  the  subject  into 
the  debate.  Reed  said  that  he  was  pained  to  hear 
the  matter  opened  again,  but  that  time  did  not  seem 
to  assuage  the  grief  of  the  Democrats. 

The  attitude  which  they  have  assumed  for  the  last  four 
years  reminds  me  very  much  of  a  dog  that  I  once  owned. 
After  going  out  into  the  street  and  getting  a  complete  and 
thorough  thrashing  from  a  bigger  and  worthier  dog,  he  used 
to  come  into  the  house  and  lay  down  on  the  hearth,  and  then 
with  one  paw  rub  one  damaged  ear  and  growl,  and  with  the 
other  paw  rub  the  other  ear  and  growl,  and  then  he  would  rub 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  73 

his  scarred  and  unhappy  nose  and  growl,  and  feel  bad  gener 
ally.  [Laughter.]  Now,  I  am  in  hopes  that  time,  after  a  suf 
ficient  lapse  of  it,  may  cure  them,  as  it  has  cured  him.  [A  mem 
ber  interrupted  to  ask :  "  The  dog  is  cured  now?  "]  REED  :  He  is 
dead.  [Great  laughter.]  There  never  was  a  baser  thing  in  the 
history  of  this  or  any  other  country  than  the  fraud  lamen 
tation  which  has  been  revived  so  eloquently  and  so  melo 
diously  by  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina,  Mr.  Davis. 
i  .  .  You  can  always  tell  something  of  the  material  of  which 
the  house  is  built  by  inspecting  a  portion  of  it.  I  had  occa 
sion  to  investigate  one  parish.  —  I  want  gentlemen  to  draw 
their  own  inferences.  I  will  not  draw  one,  nor  will  I  state 
a  fact  that  either  side  can  deny  or  dispute.  In  the  parish  of 
East  Feliciana  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,  in  the  year  be 
tween  1874  and  1876,  there  were  fourteen  persons  murdered, 
and  that  fact  no  man  doubts;  no  man  can  dispute  it.  The 
Democrats  say  that  it  was  on  account  of  cotton-seed  steal 
ing,  and  personal  difficulties.  The  Republicans  say  that 
these  murders  were  political.  On  these  two  points  men  differ, 
but  here  are  the  other  facts  equally  undisputed.  First,  every 
man  who  was  killed  was  a  Republican;  second,  cotton-seed 
stealing  and  murder  simultaneously  ceased  on  election 
day;  third,  in  1874  that  parish  cast  1600  Republican  votes 
against  800  Democratic  —  two  to  one.  And  in  1876,  after 
these  murders  had  taken  place,  there  were  1700  registered 
Democratic  votes,  400  unregistered,  and  one  for  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes. 

A  member  insisted  on  interrupting  Reed,  to  ask  the 
question  whether  a  committee  of  the  House  had  not 
reported  that  the  election  in  1874  was  free  and  fair,  to 
which  Reed  made  the  reply :  — 

I  answer  very  distinctly,  that  was  the  very  year  when  the 
Republican  vote  in  that  parish  was  two  to  one  as  compared 
with  the  Democratic  vote.  I  think  it  very  possible  that  that 
may  have  been  a  fair  election.  Now,  having  embalmed  that 
fly  in  the  liquid  amber  of  my  discourse,  I  wish  to  proceed. 


74  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

There  is  evidence  worth  considering,  to  the  effect 
that  the  investigation  was  not  intended  to  be  aca 
demic,  but  had  the  practical  purpose  of  laying  a  foun 
dation  for  a  contest.  The  secretary  of  the  Republican 
Congressional  Committee  made  the  charge  that  it  was 
the  intention  "to  attempt  the  revolutionary  expulsion 
of  the  President  from  his  office."  Mr.  Elaine  in  the 
Senate,  on  March  24,  1879,  in  effect  charged  that  it 
had  been  the  intention  of  the  Democrats,  in  entering 
upon  the  Potter  investigation,  "to  remove  the  Presi 
dent  if  they  could  prove  fraud."  In  reply  to  Elaine 
two  Democratic  senators,  Eaton  and  Hill,  declared 
that  no  revolution  was  intended,  but  only  an  orderly 
procedure  in  the  courts  in  pursuance  of  the  provisions 
of  the  act  establishing  the  Electoral  Commission, 
and  Hill  admitted  that  it  was  a  purpose  of  the  Potter 
Committee  to  get  material  for  use  in  the  courts. 

Whatever  other  result  the  investigation  may  have 
had,  it  caused  the  fraud  issue  to  disappear  from  poli 
tics,  and  while  an  attempt  was  made  to  revive  it  in 
subsequent  campaigns,  it  did  not  amount  to  a  vital 
issue.  The  investigation  resulted  in  giving  Reed  promi 
nence  throughout  the  country.  He  received  praise 
from  the  Republican  journals  for  the  ability  which  he 
had  displayed  in  the  cross-examination  of  witnesses, 
and  on  the  other  hand  he  was  a  good  deal  abused  by 
the  Democratic  journals  for  the  same  reason.  But  his 
hold  upon  his  district  was  strengthened,  and  while  the 
investigation  had  not  proceeded  very  far  when  he  ap 
peared  for  reelection  in  September,  1878,  his  appoint- 


THE  POTTER  INVESTIGATION  75 

ment  upon  such  an  important  committee  and  the  suc 
cess  with  which  he  took  part  in  its  work  touched  the 
local  pride  of  his  constituency,  and  he  was  reelected 
without  difficulty. 


CHAPTER  VI 

REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  —  HIS  PROGRESS 
TOWARDS  LEADERSHIP 

REED'S  attitude  on  the  money  question  drew  upon  him 
the  opposition  of  the  Greenback  orators,  and  gave  him 
serious  trouble,  not  indeed  in  the  campaign  of  1878, 
but  in  the  one  immediately  succeeding  it.  The  cause 
of  greenbackism  secured  a  strong  foothold  in  Maine. 
After  repeated  attempts  to  issue  more  paper  money, 
and  then  to  repeal  the  Resumption  Act,  attempts 
which  had  been  defeated  only  by  the  veto,  the  opinion 
of  the  country  was  waiting  to  witness  the  effect  of  the 
operation  of  resumption  which  was  to  be  put  in  force 
the  first  of  January,  1879. 

The  administration  of  the  Treasury  under  President 
Hayes  had  been  above  criticism.  Our  national  bonds 
to  an  enormous  amount  had  been  refunded  at  a  much 
lower  rate  of  interest.  Gold  had  been  gradually  piled 
up  so  that  the  reserve  of  a  hundred  millions  might  be 
in  the  vaults  of  the  Treasury  at  the  time  resumption 
should  take  effect.  The  operations  of  the  Treasury- 
were  greatly  aided  by  the  condition  of  the  revenue, 
which  was  sufficient  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the 
government  including  the  interest  upon  the  debt,  and 
to  leave  a  comfortable  surplus  each  year.  When  gold 
payments  were  finally  resumed,  public  confidence  was 


REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  7? 

shown  to  be  such  that  the  demand  upon  the  govern 
ment  for  coin  in  exchange  for  greenbacks  was  very 
slight,  and  the  voluntary  deposit  of  coin  for  notes  very 
large.  Whether  or  not  the  remarkable  revival  of  busi 
ness  was  due  to  gold  payments,  it  was  unquestionably 
true  that  concurrently  with  resumption  such  a  revival 
occurred,  and  under  it  the  revenues  of  the  government 
were  destined  to  make  astonishing  gains.  Before  the 
end  of  President  Arthur's  administration  the  revenue 
became  so  great  that  less  than  two  thirds  of  it  was  re 
quired  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  government  and 
more  than  one  third  was  clear  surplus.  The  principal 
of  the  public  debt  was  paid  off  with  great  rapidity, 
and  the  currency  seemed  at  last  to  have  attained  a 
solid  foundation. 

The  standard  of  value,  however,  was  not  so  easily 
settled.  There  was  one  disturbing  factor,  not  generally 
appreciated  at  the  time,  which  was  destined  to  grow 
stronger  and  finally  to  make  necessary  another  great 
struggle.  The  first  Congress  of  which  Reed  was  a  mem 
ber  had,  against  his  earnest  opposition,  passed  a  bill 
providing  for  the  coinage  of  two  million  silver  dollars 
each  month.  This  dollar  was  of  the  same  weight  and 
fineness  as  the  dollar  which  had  been  demonetized  in 
1873,  and  it  was  made  legal  tender.  The  silver  it  con 
tained  was  not  equal  in  value  to  the  bullion  value  of  the 
gold  dollar,  and  as  the  number  of  these  silver  dollars 
increased,  their  bullion  value  diminished.  They  were 
a  charge  upon  the  gold  reserve,  which  had  been  pro 
vided  for  the  greenbacks  alone.  But  the  silver 


78  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

culty  was  to  reach  its  climax  when  Reed  had  become 
the  unquestioned  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House,  and 
we  shall  see  how  he  dealt  with  it. 

In  his  first  Congress  Reed  had  displayed  an  interest 
in  questions  relating  to  the  Indians  and  made  a  speech 
in  which  he  resented  the  attempt  to  encroach  upon  the 
Indian  lands.  He  insisted  that  the  treaties  with  the 
Indians  should  be  respected  and  that  they  should  not 
be  robbed  of  their  lands  even  although  a  fine  pretext 
was  put  forward,  as  is  usually  done  when  it  is  necessary 
to  cover  a  breach  of  public  faith.  "  I  am  glad,  at  least," 
he  said,  "to  see  that  there  is  grace  enough  left  in  this 
matter  to  sugar  it  over  with  pleasant  phraseology.  I 
am  glad  to  see  that  no  member  of  this  House  makes  a 
proposition  to  take  land  away  from  people  who  own  it 
unless  he  can  convince  his  mind  that  the  handsome 
phrase  'the  march  of  civilization'  will  cover  the  oc 
casion  as  well  as  the  country."  But  jurisdiction  over 
the  Indians  was  generally  exercised  by  the  Commit 
tee  on  Indian  Affairs,  and  only  in  exceptional  in 
stances  did  the  questions  relating  to  them  come  be 
fore  the  Committee  on  Territories,  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  The  other  work  of  that  committee  did  not 
especially  interest  him.  He  probably  expressed  his 
view  of  his  own  fitness  for  its  work  when,  in  a  later 
House,  of  which  he  was  Speaker,  he  was  asked  by  a 
member  from  a  large  city  for  an  appointment  to  the 
Committee  on  Territories.  Reed  expressed  surprise 
at  the  request  and  asked,  "What  do  you  want  to  be 
appointed  on  the  Committee  on  Territories  for?  You 


REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  79 

would  not  know  a  territory  if  you  met  one  walking 
down  Pennsylvania  Avenue." 

The  Forty-Sixth  Congress,  the  second  of  which 
Reed  was  a  member,  was  Democratic  by  a  small  ma 
jority,  and  Randall  was  again  elected  Speaker.  Gar- 
field  was  for  a  second  time  made  the  Republican  can 
didate  for  the  office  and  retained  his  position  as  minor 
ity  leader.  That  there  had  been  little  relative  change 
in  the  strength  of  the  two  parties  was  shown  by  the 
vote  for  Speaker,  Randall's  plurality  over  Garfield 
being  only  two  larger  than  in  the  preceding  Congress. 
Among  the  new  members  were  Nelson  W.  Aldrich  of 
Rhode  Island,  Levi  P.  Morton  of  New  York,  Henry 
H.  Bingham  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Benjamin  Butter- 
worth  of  Ohio.  The  Greenback  party  appeared  with 
fourteen  members,  one  of  whom  was  Mr.  Adlai  E. 
Stevenson  of  Illinois,  afterwards  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States. 

This  Congress  was  called  in  extraordinary  session  by 
the  President,  as  had  been  the  previous  one,  because 
of  the  failure  to  pass  some  of  the  regular  appropria 
tion  bills,  of  which  the  army  bill  was  one. 

In  the  organization  of  the  House,  Reed  secured  a 
promotion  and  was  put  on  the  Judiciary  Committee, 
an  appointment  generally  sought  by  the  lawyers  of 
the  House.  Among  his  Republican  colleagues  on  the 
committee  were  William  McKinley  of  Ohio  and 
George  D.  Robinson,  afterwards  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts.  Reed's  experience  in  the  preceding  Con 
gress  on  the  Committee  on  Territories  had  not  been 


80  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

such  apparently  as  to  lead  him  to  wish  to  continue 
on  it. 

In  addition  to  the  subjects  dealt  with  by  the  Judi 
ciary  Committee,  Reed  displayed  a  deep  interest  in 
all  matters  of  parliamentary  procedure.  The  brief 
colloquies  in  which  he  took  part  show  that  he  was 
constantly  making  a  study  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
House,  and  was  carefully  scrutinizing  the  manner  in 
which  it  operated  and  transacted  its  business,  and  he 
soon  became  unequaled  as  a  parliamentarian,  not  per 
haps  in  his  definite  knowledge  of  the  numerous  pre 
cedents  in  the  history  of  the  House,  but  in  his  broad 
comprehension  of  its  workings  and  of  the  anatomy  of 
its  structure. 

His  great  achievement  as  a  parliamentarian  was  to  be 
the  establishment  of  a  system  under  which  the  House 
could  effectively  do  business,  and  he  arrived  at  that 
position  by  aiding  to  demonstrate,  while  a  member  of 
the  minority,  how  the  House  under  its  rules  could  be 
prevented  from  doing  business.  With  the  other  mem 
bers  of  his  own  party,  and  indeed  with  nearly  all  mem 
bers  of  all  minority  parties  in  the  history  of  the  House, 
he  engaged  in  filibustering.  This  practice  was  a  very 
common  one  during  the  first  Congresses  in  which  Reed 
served,  and  it  was  not  only  resorted  to  on  solemn  oc 
casions  but  was  sometimes  indulged  in  upon  measures 
of  comparatively  trivial  importance.  The  method  of 
filibustering  commonly  pursued  was  for  the  minority 
members  to  refuse  to  respond  on  the  roll-call,  on  some 
measure  or  motion  obnoxious  to  them,  and  thus  to 


REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  81 

destroy  the  quorum.  The  House  would  then  embark 
upon  another  roll-call  to  ascertain  whether  a  quorum 
was  present,  and  it  would  sometimes  proceed  to  "com 
pel  the  attendance  of  absent  members,"  who  would  be 
brought  to  the  bar  of  the  House  in  custody  of  the  ser- 
geant-at-arms,  and  after  excuses,  usually  frivolous, 
for  their  absence,  would  be  ordered  discharged  from 
arrest. 

Reed  himself  was  once  brought  to  the  bar  in  cus 
tody.  He  made  a  mock  excuse,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  said:  "In  any  other  assembly  than  this  I  should 
expect  an  apology;  but  under  the  circumstances  I  am 
willing  to  be  released,  and  call  it  square  at  that." 
After  it  appeared  on  the  roll-call  that  a  quorum  was 
present,  the  roll  would  again  be  called  on  the  obnoxious 
piece  of  business  and  again  the  minority  members 
would  sit  silent  and  no  progress  would  be  made.  On 
the  call  of  the  House  the  quorum  would  reappear,  only 
to  vanish  again  when  a  forward  step  was  to  be  taken 
on  the  measure  before  the  House.  Thus  business  would 
sometimes  be  delayed  by  a  fruitless  round  of  roll-calls 
until  the  majority  would  surrender  by  dropping  the 
pending  legislation,  or  until  by  an  extraordinary  effort 
it  would  be  able  to  marshal  a  quorum  from  its  own 
ranks. 

On  January  28,  1880,  Reed  defended  the  commonly 
accepted  construction  of  the  constitutional  provision 
regarding  the  quorum,  which  construction  he  was 
afterwards  to  overthrow.  "  It  is  not  the  visible  pres 
ence  of  members,"  he  said,  "but  their  judgment  and 


82  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

their  votes  that  the  Constitution  calls  for."  The  priv 
ilege  not  to  vote  "  is  a  privilege  which  every  minor 
ity  has  availed  itself  of  since  the  foundation  of  the 
government."  The  minority  could  upon  great  occa 
sions  demand  that  every  bill  should  "receive  the  abso 
lute  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  members  elected."  They 
would  make  this  demand  "  in  the  face  and  eyes  of  the 
country."  If  the  demand  was  made  on  a  frivolous  occa 
sion  it  would  be  subject  to  public  censure.  "It  is  a 
valuable  privilege  for  the  country  that  the  minority 
shall  have  the  right  by  this  extraordinary  mode  of  pro 
ceeding  to  call  the  attention  of  the  country  to  meas 
ures  which  a  party  in  a  moment  of  madness  and  of 
party  feeling  is  endeavoring  to  force." 

This  speech  was  made  early  in  his  career  and  simply 
presented  the  traditional  arguments  in  favor  of  the  prac 
tice.  He  was,  at  a  later  time  in  his  service,  to  resort 
again  to  filibustering  of  this  sort,  but  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  compelling  such  a  change  of  procedure  as 
would  amount  to  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the 
test  of  the  constitutional  quorum  is  whether  a  majority 
of  members  is  actually  present  and  not  whether  a  ma 
jority  has  answered  on  the  calling  of  the  roll. 

During  this  session,  after  a  long  parliamentary 
wrangle,  a  Democratic  member  moved  to  refer  the  sub 
ject  under  consideration  to  a  "committee  on  common 
sense."  Said  Reed,  "  That  would  be  a  partisan  commit 
tee,  all  from  this  side."  The  next  day,  referring  to  party 
government,  he  said:  "The  best  system  is  to  have  one 
party  govern  and  the  other  party  watch,  and  on  general 


REED'S  SECOND  CONGRESS  83 

principles  I  think  it  would  be  better  for  us  to  govern 
and  the  Democrats  to  watch." 

The  approach  of  the  general  election  of  1880  caused 
the  two  parties  to  subordinate  all  the  business  of  the 
House  to  the  manufacture  of  political  capital  for  cam 
paign  purposes.  A  portion  of  the  national  election  laws 
providing  for  the  presence  of  deputy  United  States 
marshals  at  the  polls  afforded  a  theme  for  the  most  pas 
sionate  declamation.  On  the  one  side  it  was  urged  that 
the  marshals  constituted  a  force  of  mercenaries  which 
the  administration  might  use  to  intimidate  and  coerce 
voters,  and  on  the  other  that  they  were  necessary  to 
prevent  fraud  and  violence  of  the  worst  kind.  Although 
the  use  of  these  officials  at  the  polls  was  prescribed  by 
law,  many  Democrats  resisted  making  the  appropria 
tions  to  pay  them,  while  the  extreme  Republican  view 
was  somewhat  luridly  expressed  by  a  member  who 
said :  — 

The  Democratic  majority  has  found  its  way  into  this  hall 
by  the  light  of  burning  homes  and  blazing  churches  —  its 
bloody  footprints  stain  the  very  steps  of  the  Capitol.  —  By 
this  means  you  have  secured  both  branches  of  Congress. 
Now  the  presidency  is  to  be  attained,  but  how?  Nullify  the 
election  laws,  you  say.  Give  us  free  fraud  and  no  special 
deputy  marshals  to  detect  us  in  our  crimes.1 

The  Republicans,  including  Reed,  supported  the 
provision  for  the  deputy  marshals,  although  Reed  took 
no  part  in  the  debate. 

1  Speech  of  Representative  Julius  C.  Burrows  of  Michigan  in  the 
House. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   GREENBACK   ISSUE  —  RELATIONS  WITH 
ELAINE 

THE  presence  in  the  House  of  so  many  members 
elected  as  out-and-out  Greenbackers  served  to  put 
emphasis  on  the  money  question,  and  the  campaign 
which  followed  showed  very  strongly  the  influence  of 
the  forces  favoring  the  free  coinage  of  silver  or  further 
issues  of  greenbacks.  But  the  money  issue  was  not 
squarely  joined  in  the  general  election  of  1880,  as  in 
deed  it  had  never  been  in  any  presidential  election, 
even  when  the  sentiment  for  inflation  was  at  its  height. 
In  different  states  it  found  its  way  to  the  front,  but 
there  was  no  national  alignment.  There  had  been 
much  overheated  declamation  on  the  subject,  but 
there  were  other  issues  that  overshadowed  it  and  di 
verted  public  attention.  The  distribution  of  the  politi 
cal  control  of  the  states  was  such  that  neither  party  felt 
that  it  could  afford  to  make  the  issue  in  its  national 
platform.  New  York  was  the  pivotal  state  in  a  general 
election,  and  the  importance  of  carrying  it  shaped  the 
attitude  of  both  the  great  parties  on  the  money  ques 
tion.  The  influence  of  the  business  interests  in  that 
state  was  very  powerful,  and  indeed  controlling.  No 
party  could  hope  to  carry  it  in  favor  of  what  was  called 
"soft  money."  The  standard  of  our  money  was  never 


THE  GREENBACK  ISSUE  85 

squarely  made  an  issue  in  a  presidential  campaign 
until  1896. 

But  Maine  was  one  of  the  states  in  which  the  sen 
timent  for  the  greenback  was  very  strong,  and  the 
strength  of  that  sentiment  very  nearly  cost  Reed 
his  seat.  He  had  never  sought  to  conceal  his  attitude 
on  the  money  question  or  to  imitate  the  course  of  some 
conspicuous  politicians  by  assuming  a  position  that 
would  appeal  to  both  sides.  He  was  uncompromis 
ingly  against  inflation  and  spoke  strongly  against  it 
both  in  the  House  and  in  his  own  state.  Solon  Chase 
was  the  real  leader  of  the  Greenbackers  of  Maine,  and 
this  political  evangelist  made  himself  famous  through 
out  the  country  by  his  quaint  and  homely  way  of  ar 
guing  the  question.  His  favorite  illustration  of  the 
evils  of  the  contraction  of  the  currency  was  to  point 
to  its  effect  in  reducing  the  price  of  his  cattle,  which 
he  referred  to  as  "them  steers";  and  "them  steers" 
came  into  vogue  far  outside  of  Maine  as  a  part  of  the 
political  lingo  of  the  time.  Chase  made  very  taking 
appeals  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  voters  and  he  could 
not  be  ignored.  Reed's  references  to  Chase  were  some 
what  in  the  latter 's  style,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  fol 
lowing  version  of  a  speech  he  made  at  Lewiston.  He 
argued  that  the  only  successful  kind  of  currency  was 
one  "payable  in  coin  at  the  will  of  the  holder."  It  was 
no  new  thing  to  dream  of  a  "paper  paradise."  It  had 
been  tried  by  every  civilized  nation,  and  "it  has  always 
led  to  the  pit  of  destruction."  A  small  town  in  Maine 
worth  not  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  had  voted 


86  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

to  raise  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  repair  the 
roads  and  "to  pay  a  man  and  a  yoke  of  oxen  fifty  dol 
lars  a  day  to  work  on  the  highways.  What  a  place  that 
would  have  been  for  Solon  and  his  steers!  Solon 
ought  to  have  been  there.  It  would  have  been  so 
much  happier  for  him.  To-day  there's  a  heap  of 
trouble  on  the  old  man's  mind.  Here  is  a  paradise 
already  created  for  the  peripatetic  Greenbacker  and 
the  millennium  already  descended."  A  breakfast  cost 
one  hundred  dollars  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  "in  Hayti 
they  actually  have  dollars  three  for  a  cent." 

The  old  county  feud  had  broken  out  again  in  this 
campaign  and  a  conference  of  Republicans  from  ten 
towns  of  York  County  had  been  held  in  Biddeford  in 
May,  1880,  to  oppose  Reed's  renomination  and  put  a 
York  man  in  his  place.  The  conference  however  de 
veloped  strong  support  for  Reed.  One  man  wrote  that 
he  had  opposed  Reed's  first  nomination  and  was  op 
posed  also  to  all  the  men  he  had  tried  to  put  in  office. 
"But  there  is  something  higher  than  all  this.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Reed  is  the  ablest  man  of  his  age  in  Congress  and  he 
has  won  a  national  reputation  as  one  of  the  foremost 
men  there."  The  movement  for  a  York  man  did  not 
assume  large  proportions  and  Reed  was  easily  nomi 
nated.  But  the  contest  for  the  election  was  very  close. 
In  the  preceding  state  election,  the  "Fusionists,"  com 
posed  of  Democrats  and  Greenbackers,  had  carried 
the  state,  and  the  famous  "count  out"  by  the  Gover 
nor  and  Council  resulted  in  giving  control  of  the 
Legislature  to  the  same  combination.  In  a  letter  writ- 


THE  GREENBACK  ISSUE  87 

ten  just  after  the  "count  out,"  to  William  B.  Tobey, 
Reed  had  denounced  it  and  declared  that  "the  pre 
tences  on  which  it  has  been  done  are  as  frivolous  as 
the  crime  is  gigantic."  He  declared  that  Portland  had 
been  disfranchised  because  its  clerk  "returned  scatter 
ing  votes."  The  votes  of  other  places  had  been  re 
jected  on  account  of  pretexts  no  less  frivolous.  Cherry- 
field  was  "of  no  account  in  this  government  of  the 
people  because  one  of  the  selectmen  was  born  across 
the  border."  The  omission  of  an  h  in  "  John  Burnham's 
name  is  fatal,  while  his  fusion  competitor,  Alfred 
Cushman,  sails  in  under  the  name  of  'Alford'  without 
the  faintest  difficulty." 

The  principal  occupation  of  the  voter  in  Maine  at 
that  time  appears  to  have  been  politics.  The  prospect 
of  having  the  government  relieve  poverty  and  perhaps 
dispense  with  the  necessity  of  labor  presented  an  El 
dorado  to  the  imaginations  of  the  Greenbackers.  It 
inspired  not  only  their  orators  but  their  poets  also. 
They  anticipated  the  fervent  rhetoric  of  a  later  time 
in  their  denunciation  of  financial  institutions  and, 
generally,  of  the  rich.  A  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  "Evening  Post,"  writing  to  his  paper  from 
Portland,  preserved  the  following  verses  which  he  had 
heard  sung  at  a  Greenback  lecture:  — 

Thou,  Greenback,  't  is  of  thee. 
Fair  money  of  the  free, 

Of  thee  we  sing. 
And  through  all  coming  time, 
Great  bards  in  every  clime 
Will  sing  with  joyful  rhyme, 

Gold  is  not  King. 


88  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Then  smash  old  Shylock's  bonds 
With  all  his  gold  coupons, 

The  banks  and  rings. 
Monopolies  must  fail, 
Rich  paupers  work  in  jail, 
The  right  will  then  prevail, 

Not  money  kings. 

A  Greenback  orator  followed  Reed  into  one  of  his 
meetings  and  interrupted  him  to  dispute  one  of  his 
statements.  Reed  reaffirmed  it.  "Well,"  said  the 
Greenback  orator,  "I  want  to  state  that  I  have  the  law 
in  my  satchel  which  says  that  banks  cannot  bank  on 
less  than  five  per  cent  bonds."  "Law  in  his  satchel!" 
replied  Reed;  "if  this  gentleman  would  only  have  less 
law  in  his  satchel  and  more  in  his  head,  he  would  be  a 
much  more  useful  and  reliable  citizen." 

A  campaign  like  this  was  sure  to  become  personal, 
and  in  that  particular  Reed  was  at  no  disadvantage. 
Speaking  of  the  Greenback  orators  who  had  swarmed 
over  the  state  in  a  previous  campaign,  he  said  there  was 

a  bankrupt  Massachusetts  speculator  who  had  lost  all  his 
own  money  and  came  to  Maine  to  tell  us  how  to  save  our 
credit.  There  was  a  barber  who  had  run  the  gamut  of  all 
parties  and  all  religions  to  get  an  audience  and  had  never 
been  able  to  hold  one  except  the  poor  unfortunate  he  was 
lathering  in  the  chair.  With  these  came  a  swarm  of  utterly 
unknown  men,  who  had  neither  a  local  habitation  nor  a 
name,  —  not  even  the  luxury  of  a  post-office  address.  And 
yet  some  of  these  fellows  deceived  the  very  elect. 

Much  more  of  the  same  sort  might  be  quoted  from 
Reed's  speeches  during  this  campaign.  He  was  well 
aware  that  he  was  in  a  desperate  fight  and  he  knew  the 
seductive  quality  of  the  Greenback  appeals.  All  his 


THE  GREENBACK  ISSUE  89 

resources  of  wit,  eloquence,  argument,  and  invective 
he  called  into  play.  He  managed  to  secure  an  election, 
but  only  by  one  hundred  and  nine  votes,  which  was 
much  the  smallest  plurality  he  ever  received.  It  is 
true  that  his  support  was  weakened  by  a  squabble 
over  a  post-office,  but  the  influence  of  this  contest  was 
insignificant  compared  with  that  of  the  money  question. 
The  narrowness  of  the  plurality  tempted  his  antago 
nist  to  enter  a  contest  for  the  seat  and  carry  it  to  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

Maine  was  a  "September  State,"  so  far  as  the  elec 
tion  of  its  state  officers  and  members  of  Congress  was 
concerned,  and  it  was  therefore  the  theater  of  a  bitter 
contest.  Each  party  did  its  utmost  to  secure  a  favor 
able  result,  for  effect  on  the  country  at  the  general 
voting  in  November.  But  the  election  in  Maine  was 
hardly  better  for  the  Republicans  than  a  drawn  battle. 
It  did  not  indicate  the  decisive  victory  they  were  des 
tined  to  win  in  the  November  election,  when  they  chose 
the  President  and  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  retained  control  of  the  Senate,  and  for  the 
first  time  since  the  election  of  1872  gave  to  the  same 
party  the  presidency  and  both  houses  of  Congress." 

Reed  was  one  of  a  party  of  Maine  men  who  went 
to  the  Republican  National  Convention  in  Chicago,  in 
1880,  in  the  interest  of  the  nomination  of  Elaine  for 
the  presidency.  Garfield  was  finally  chosen  by  the 
transfer  to  him  of  the  Elaine  strength.  Reed  was  a 
warm  friend  of  Garfield,  for  whom  he  had  voted  as 
Speaker  of  the  House  and  under  whom  as  leader  he 


90  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

had  served.  Garfield  was  better  fitted  for  service  in  a 
parliamentary  body  than  as  an  executive  officer.  He 
was  ready  and  eloquent  in  debate  and  he  led  his  party 
in  the  House  with  brilliancy  and  yet  with  good  judg 
ment.  Reed  admired  him  as  a  parliamentarian  and 
expressed  the  opinion  that  he  was  the  ablest  debater 
with  whom  he  had  served  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives;  and  he  most  heartily  supported  him  when  he  was 
made  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  president.1 

Although  the  relations  between  Elaine  and  Reed 
were  not  those  of  close  intimacy,  and  they  sometimes 
disagreed  upon  questions  relating  to  the  politics  of 
Maine,  they  were  usually  found  acting  together,  and 
Reed  was  faithful  to  Elaine  during  the  years  when  the 
latter  was  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  nation  and  when 
his  position  as  leader  was  made  difficult  by  opposition 
within  his  own  ranks.  Reed  was  generous  in  the  ex 
pression  of  admiration  for  Elaine's  talents  on  more  than 
one  occasion.  He  once  said  of  him:  "His  rush  was  very 
hard  to  withstand;  he  never  paused  to  defend  and 
never  ceased  to  attack."  He  would  sometimes  indulge 
in  a  little  sarcasm  at  Elaine's  expense.  Senator  Lodge, 
in  an  article  in  the  "Century  Magazine,"  says  that  he 
chanced  to  meet  Reed  on  State  Street,  Boston,  just 

1  Of  Elaine's  eulogy  on  Garfield,  Reed  wrote  in  an  article  in  the 
Youth's  Companion:  "The  task  was  not  easy,  for  Mr.  Blaine  had  to 
satisfy  both  the  critical  audience  there  present,  who  knew  where 
Garfield  was  not  strong,  and  the  greater  audience,  beyond,  who  were 
filled  with  the  accumulated  pity  and  regret  of  many  long  weary  and 
anxious  days  of  waiting  by  the  bedside  of  the  dying  man.  Both  are 
gone.  They  were  both  mighty  in  their  day  and  generation." 


THE  GREENBACK  ISSUE  91 

after  Elaine's  nomination  in  1884,  and  asked  him  what 
he  thought  of  it.  "Well,"  replied  Reed,  "it  is  a  great 
comfort  to  think  that  the  wicked  politicians  were  not 
allowed  to  pick  the  candidate,  and  that  the  nomina 
tion  was  made  by  the  people.  The  politicians  would 
have  been  guided  only  by  a  base  desire  to  win." 

Whatever  other  estimate  may  be  placed  upon 
Blaine,  he  was  one  of  the  most  vital,  as  he  was  one  of 
the  most  unfortunate,  figures  in  our  political  history. 
Soon  after  his  accession  to  the  speakership  in  1869, 
he  was  destined  to  achieve  a  popularity  possessed  by 
no  other  man  in  his  party,  and  for  twenty  years  he 
shone  in  that  respect  without  a  rival.  In  the  Republi 
can  convention  of  1876,  in  the  face  of  personal  attacks 
of  unexampled  bitterness,  and  in  spite  of  the  opposi 
tion  of  the  national  administration,  he  received  upon 
different  ballots  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  all  the  dele 
gates,  and  only  failed  of  a  nomination  to  the  presidency 
by  the  merest  accident.  In  1880  he  was  strong  enough 
against  Grant  and  Conkling  to  dictate  the  nominee  of 
the  Convention.  In  1884  he  was  made  the  candidate 
of  his  party  and  escaped  election  by  the  narrowest 
of  margins  and  as  a  result  of  the  grotesque  political 
blunder  of  an  aged  clergyman.  Four  years  afterwards 
he  would  have  received  the  votes  of  two-thirds  of  the 
members  of  the  National  Convention  of  his  party  had 
he  not  forbidden  the  use  of  his  name.  That  he  should  for 
so  many  years  have  been  the  most  conspicuous  states 
man  and  the  real  leader  of  his  party,  at  a  period  when, 
in  the  intelligence  and  public  spirit  of  its  rank  and  file, 


92  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

it  was  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of  great  parties,  af 
fords  striking  proof  of  the  brilliancy  of  his  qualities  and 
of  the  hold  he  had  upon  the  popular  imagination.  In 
the  character  of  his  popularity  he  was  on  a  level  with 
Henry  Clay,  and  in  the  quality  of  what  he  said  he 
was  certainly  at  no  disadvantage  with  the  latter.  The 
Little  Rock  incident  in  which  he  was  involved  was  suf 
ficiently  unfortunate,  even  without  exaggeration.  But 
its  significance  was  magnified  by  the  partisan  ani 
mosity  of  critics  who  supplemented  the  known  facts 
by  conjectures  of  their  own,  in  order  to  draw  against 
him  the  most  damaging  conclusions  and  who  reserved 
standards  of  judgment  for  him  which  they  refrained 
from  applying  to  their  political  friends. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WINNING   LEADERSHIP — SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN 
—  GENEVA   AWARD   DISTRIBUTIONS 

FOR  the  first  time  in  his  service  Reed  now  found  him 
self  a  member  of  the  majority  in  the  House.  He  had 
gained  for  himself  such  a  favorable  reputation  that  he 
was  urged  by  many  friends  to  become  a  candidate  for 
Speaker.  In  addition  to  his  party  colleagues  from 
Maine,  a  majority  of  the  Republicans  of  the  Massachu 
setts  delegation  and  members  from  other  New  England 
states  as  well  as  from  some  of  the  Western  states  were 
favorable  to  his  candidacy.  It  was  urged  for  Reed 
in  one  of  the  leading  journals  that  he  was  "a  man  of 
uncommon  intellectual  activity  and  of  growing  power." 
It  was  urged  against  him  by  another  that  he  was  "too 
sharp  of  tongue"  and  that  his  seat  was  contested. 
The  movement  in  his  favor  was  sufficiently  marked  to 
attract  the  attention  and  antagonism  of  the  Demo 
cratic  newspapers.  One  of  them  declared  him  to  be 
"an  overgrown  boy,  who  has  not  mastered  the  rudi 
ments  of  the  manual."  * 

Godlove  S.  Orth  of  Indiana  was  also  a  candidate  for 
the  office,  and  wrote  Reed  a  letter  in  regard  to  his 
candidacy  to  which  Reed  rather  diplomatically  replied : 

1  Washington  dispatch  to  the  New  York  Sun.  The  same  dis 
patch  impartially  castigated  all  the  other  Republican  candidates. 


94  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

"There  will  be  nothing  in  the  contest  for  the  Speaker- 
ship  to  change  my  good-will  towards  you.  In  fact  I 
hope  the  result  may  be  such  as  to  increase  it  and  to 
put  into  my  hands  power  and  opportunity  to  show  my 
appreciation  of  your  standing  and  of  your  service  to 
the  party." 

General  Keifer  of  Ohio  easily  won  the  nomination 
for  Speaker  in  the  Republican  caucus,  and  on  account 
of  the  support  of  the  so-called  Readjuster  members, 
aided  by  the  absence  of  some  of  the  Democrats,  he 
was  elected  by  a  much  larger  plurality  than  he  could 
have  received  on  a  straight  party  vote.  Indeed,  in 
his  speech  accepting  the  office  he  declared  that  no 
party  in  either  House  of  Congress  had  an  absolute 
majority  over  all  the  other  parties.  It  was  difficult  to 
classify  a  few  of  the  members,  who  might  be  called 
Greenbackers  or  Republicans,  and  there  was  a  small 
group  from  Virginia  known  as  Readjusters.  There  was, 
however,  apparently  a  clear  Republican  majority  of 
one  over  all  other  parties,  which  was  sufficiently  small 
to  be  responsible  for  plenty  of  excitement.  It  was  the 
first  Republican  House,  if  Republican  it  could  be 
called,  that  had  been  elected  since  1872.  Nelson  Ding- 
ley  of  Maine  appeared  for  the  first  time  as  a  member. 
James  W.  Wadsworth  and  Perry  Belmont  appeared 
from  New  York  and  Andrew  G.  Curtin,  the  War- 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  from  that  state.  Abram 
S.  Hewitt  was  returned  again  from  New  York,  after  an 
interruption  in  his  service. 

The  first  important  discussion  at  this  session  in 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  95 

which  Reed  took  part  related  to  the  right  of  the  mem 
ber-elect  from  Utah  to  his  seat.  It  was  proposed  that 
the  man  who  had  been  elected  should  not  be  seated 
because  he  was  a  polygamist,  and  that  the  candidate 
who  had  run  against  him  and  received  only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  vote  should  be  admitted  in  his 
stead.  .Reed  moved  that  the  subject  be  referred  to  the 
Committee  on  Elections.  The  motion  was  made  the 
occasion  for  much  lurid  oratory.  One  member  was  in 
favor  of  seating  the  man  who  had  not  received  the 
votes,  because  to  scrutinize  his  claim  would  be  in 
favor  of  "that  scarlet-robed  harlot  that  sits  enthroned 
amid  the  hills  of  Utah."  Mr.  Cox  of  New  York  took 
the  other  side,  quoting  from  Scripture,  and  referred  to 
the  order  of  the  Emperor  of  Japan  for  a  parliament. 
Reed  then  took  the  floor  and  made  a  speech  in  which 
serious  argument  and  sarcasm  were  effectively  blended. 

I  am  well  aware  [he  said]  of  the  misfortune  under  which  I 
labor  in  being  obliged  to  present  a  purely  legal  argument 
after  such  coruscations  of  eloquence  as  those  which  have 
been  rayed  forth  by  the  gentlemen  from  New  York,  flash 
ing  and  booming  as  they  did  from  Japan  to  Jerusalem. 
This  whole  question  is  one  apart  from  any  question  of 
polygamy  or  politics.  The  Republican  party  has  for  twenty 
years  stood  pledged  to  put  down  both  slavery  and  polygamy. 
One  half  of  its  duty  it  has  performed  without  the  assistance 
of  my  friend  from  New  York  [Mr.  Cox];  for  the  other  half  we 
are  promised  his  assistance  and  I  have  no  doubt  we  shall  be 
able  to  accomplish  it  in  much  less  time. 

But  injustice  could  never  be  put  down  by  injustice. 
The  evidence  showed  that  the  one  candidate  received 
eighteen  thousand  votes  and  the  other  candidate 


96  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

thirteen  hundred.  He  then  argued  that  under  the  law 
of  elections  the  disqualification  of  the  majority  can 
didate  would  not  seat  the  minority  candidate.  His 
motion  prevailed  by  189  votes  to  24. 

President  Garfield  did  not  live  to  witness  the  assem 
bling  of  Congress  after  his  accession  to  the  presidency. 
He  was  assassinated  by  a  man  who  was  probably  mad 
and  whose  mind  had  been  still  further  unbalanced  by 
a  struggle  over  office  which  resulted  in  a  serious  divi 
sion  in  the  party,  destined  to  continue  until  after  the 
succeeding  presidential  election.  President  Arthur,  who 
had  succeeded  to  the  office,  sent  his  first  annual  mes 
sage  at  the  opening  of  the  Congress.  The  document 
was  largely  devoted  to  financial  subjects  and  brought 
out  the  startling  fact  that  out  of  the  Government's 
total  annual  revenue  of  $360,000,000,  $100,000,000 
was  surplus.  He  estimated  that  the  surplus  for  the  en 
suing  year  would  reach  $130,000,000,  or  more  than 
a  third  of  the  entire  revenue.  He  therefore  recom 
mended  the  repeal  of  certain  internal  taxes.  He  also 
pointed  to  the  rapid  accumulation  of  silver  dollars  in 
the  Treasury,  of  which  the  law  required  the  coinage  of 
great  numbers  each  year,  and  which  persisted  in  re 
maining  on  the  hands  of  the  government.  He  called 
for  the  repeal  of  the  law,  and  a  provision  that  in  the 
future  only  enough  silver  dollars  should  be  coined  to 
supply  the  demand.  These  recommendations  por 
tended  a  continuance  of  the  fierce  struggles  over  the 
monetary  standard,  and  a  renewal  of  the  contest  over 
the  tariff.  But  the  former  question  was  sufficiently 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  97 

vital  to  force  itself  into  discussion,  and  would  doubtless 
have  come  to  the  front  of  its  own  force;  and  the  pleth 
oric  condition  of  the  Treasury  alone  was  sufficient  to 
compel  a  consideration  of  taxation  laws. 

When  the  committee  assignments  were  announced 
it  was  seen  that  Reed  was  made  the  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  which  was  third  in  impor 
tance  among  the  committee  assignments  in  the  House, 
being  outranked  only  by  the  chairmanships  of  Ways 
and  Means  and  of  Appropriations.  That  he  should 
have  won  this  appointment  after  only  four  years  of 
service  in  the  House  afforded  striking  proof  of  the 
rapidity  with  which  he  had  risen  in  the  estimation  of 
his  associates.  Early  in  the  session  Mr.  Godlove  S. 
Orth  of  Indiana,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the  Com 
mittee  on  Rules,  resigned  as  a  protest  against  his  com 
mittee  assignments.  Reed  was  appointed  to  fill  this 
vacancy  on  Rules,  which  in  those  days  was  perhaps 
the  most  important  political  committee  in  the  House. 
Its  importance  may  be  judged  of  from  its  member 
ship  which  was  composed  of  the  Speaker,  Mr.  Reed, 
Mr.  George  M.  Robeson,  Mr.  Randall,  and  Mr.  Black 
burn. 

Mr.  Orth  still  further  expressed  his  dissatisfaction 
with  his  committee  assignments  by  proposing  a  rule 
that  the  committees  be  appointed  by  a  board  of  eleven 
members  to  be  elected  by  the  House.  Since  the  first 
Congress  the  rules  of  the  House  had  always  provided 
that  the  committees  should  be  appointed  by  the 
Speaker.  Reed  made  a  speech  against  the  proposed 


98  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

rule.  He  said  that  he  should  protest  vigorously 
against  the  plan  if  he  thought  "there  was  the  slightest 
chance  of  its  adoption  by  this  or  any  other  House." 
Whatever  complaint  could  be  made  of  appointments 
of  committees  by  pressure  upon  the  Speaker  could  be 
made  with  redoubled  force  against  appointments 
made  by  the  proposed  board.  "Think  of  the  Speaker- 
ship  of  this  House  going  into  commission!  Think  of 
the  log-rolling  there  would  be  in  order  to  get  such  a 
board  as  would  favor  various  measures  that  might  be 
presented,  supposing  always  that  there  was  in  the 
House  the  danger  of  the  suggested  corruption  or  ruin. 
What  modest,  good  men  the  board  would  have  to  be! 
They  would  have  to  pass  self-denying  ordinances  and 
resist  the  temptation  to  shine  as  members  of  Judiciary, 
Appropriations,  Ways  and  Means,  and  Foreign  Af 
fairs."  The  action  of  a  committee,  Reed  argued,  was 
under  the  scrutiny  of  the  House,  and  when  one  was 
appointed  out  of  accord  with  the  wishes  of  members 
it  became  an  object  of  suspicion ;  the  Speaker  was  not 
only  under  the  constant  supervision  of  public  opinion 
but  also  under  the  supervision  of  the  House. 

The  Speaker  submitted  to  the  House  the  question 
whether  the  proposed  Orth  rule  was  in  order,  and  the 
House  by  a  large  majority  voted  in  the  negative. 

Reed  as  the  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee 
brought  in  a  bill  on  January  25, 1882,  to  permit  Justice 
Hunt  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  was  incapacitated 
for  service,  to  retire  and  receive  the  judiciary  pension. 
The  passage  of  the  bill  was  opposed,  and  the  debate 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  99 

which  ensued  will  serve  to  show  Reed's  conservative  at 
titude  toward  the  judiciary.  The  contract  with  a  judge 
who  was  appointed  for  life,  he  argued,  was  to  be  taken 
as  an  entirety.  It  was  an  easy  matter  sitting  in  the 
House  in  health  and  comfort  to  talk  about  the  duty  of 
a  judge  "to  resign  the  salary  which  by  law  belongs  to 
him  for  life,  and  go  out  to  poverty  and  discomfort," 
when  he  was  utterly  incapacitated  from  supporting 
himself.  He  knew  how  easy  it  was  to  set  up  lofty  stand 
ards  of  human  action;  but  he  had  noticed  also  that  the 
lofty  standard  was  set  up  "by  those  who  do  not  have 
to  carry  it  into  actual  battle."  When  he  heard  men  mak 
ing  unreasonable  demands  on  human  nature  he  had 
"a  dreadful  suspicion  that  their  actions  would  not  be 
equal  to  their  talk,"  if  the  case  was  their  own.  The 
House  passed  the  bill. 

A  few  days  later,  in  a  discussion  on  an  appropriation 
bill,  Reed  confessed  that  as  he  gained  more  experience 
in  the  House  he  was  dropping  the  prejudices  he  brought 
with  him,  not  rapidly,  but  "I  find  them  disappearing 
gradually."  Among  the  prejudices  he  held  when  he 
entered  Congress  was  one  "  against  talking  for  the  bene 
fit  of  the  County  of  Buncombe,  but  I  am  entirely 
satisfied  that  was  a  mistake."  Whether  grievances 
were  reasonable  or  imaginary,  "there  is  nothing  that 
shows  the  right  of  things  like  a  statement  for  and 
against." 

Early  in  the  session  Reed  reported  to  the  House  from 
the  Committee  on  Rules  a  resolution  for  a  select  Com 
mittee  on  Woman  Suffrage.  The  resolution  was  adopted 


100  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

by  115  votes  to  84.  Among  those  voting  with  Reed  in 
favor  of  the  resolution  were  Cannon,  McKinley,  and 
Dingley.  Reed  was  an  earnest  believer  in  conferring 
the  ballot  upon  women.  Although  somewhat  out  of 
chronological  order  it  is  perhaps  well  at  this  point  to 
refer  to  a  minority  report  on  woman's  suffrage,  made 
not  long  afterwards  from  the  Committee  on  the  Judi 
ciary.  The  report,  or  more  properly  the  "views  of 
the  minority,"  bears  the  names  of  four  members  of 
the  committee  of  which  his  name  was  first.  It  was 
written  by  Reed.1 

The  report  was  in  favor  of  a  proposed  amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  providing  that  the  right  of  citi 
zens  to  vote  should  not  be  denied  or  abridged  on 
account  of  sex.  It  set  forth  that  no  one  who  listened 
to  the  reasons 

given  by  the  superior  class  for  the  continuance  of  any  sys 
tem  of  subjection  can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  noble 
disinterestedness  of  mankind.  When  the  subjection  of  per 
sons  of  African  descent  was  to  be  maintained,  the  good  of 
those  persons  was  always  the  main  object.  When  it  was  the 
fashion  to  beat  children,  to  regard  them  as  little  animals  who 
had  no  rights,  it  was  always  for  their  good  that  they  were 
treated  with  severity,  and  never  on  account  of  the  bad  tem 
per  of  their  parents.  Hence,  when  it  is  proposed  to  give  to 
the  women  of  this  country  an  opportunity  to  present  their 
case  to  the  various  state  legislatures,  to  demand  of  the 
people  of  the  country  equality  of  political  rights,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  the  reasons  on  which  the  continuance 
of  the  inferiority  of  women  is  urged,  are  drawn  almost 

1  The  style  of  the  report  very  clearly  proves  its  authorship.  I 
have  it  also  on  the  authority  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Katherine  Reed 
Balentine,  that  her  father  was  the  author. 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP^  10V 

entirely  from  a  tender  consideration  of  their  own  good.  The 
anxiety  felt  lest  they  should  thereby  deteriorate,  would  be 
an  honor  to  human  nature  were  it  not  an  historical  fact  that 
the  same  sweet  solicitude  has  been  put  up  as  a  barrier 
against  every  progress  which  women  have  made  since  civ 
ilization  began. 

If  suffrage  were  a  right,  if  one  man  had  no  claim  to 
govern  another  man 

except  to  the  extent  that  the  other  man  has  a  right  to 
govern  him,  then  there  can  be  no  discussion  of  the  question 
of  woman  suffrage.  No  reason  on  earth  can  be  given  by 
those  who  claim  suffrage  as  a  right  of  manhood  which  does 
not  make  it  a  right  of  womanhood  also.  If  the  suffrage  is  to 
be  given  man  to  protect  him  in  his  life,  liberty  and  property, 
the  same  reasons  urge  that  it  be  given  to  woman,  for  she  has 
the  same  life,  liberty,  and  property  to  protect.  If  it  be  urged 
that  her  interests  are  so  bound  up  in  those  of  man  that  they 
are  sure  to  be  protected,  the  answer  is  that  the  same  argu 
ment  was  urged  as  to  the  merging  in  the  husband  of  the 
wife's  right  of  property,  and  was  pronounced  by  the  judg 
ment  of  mankind  fallacious  in  practice  and  in  principle.  If 
the  natures  of  men  and  women  are  so  alike  that  for  this 
reason  no  harm  is  done  by  suppressing  women,  what  harm 
can  be  done  by  elevating  them  to  equality?  If  their  natures 
be  different,  what  right  can  there  be  in  refusing  representa 
tion  to  those  who  might  take  juster  views  about  many  social 
and  political  questions? 

It  was  undoubtedly  true  that  women  exercised 
strong  political  influence  through  their  husbands  and 
brothers,  — 

But  that  is  just  the  kind  of  influence  which  is  not  whole 
some  for  the  community,  for  it  is  influence  unaccompanied 
by  responsibility.  .  .  . 

We  conclude  then  that  every  reason  which  in  this  country 
bestows  the  ballot  upon  man  is  equally  applicable  to  the 
proposition  to  bestow  the  ballot  upon  woman;  that  in  our 


102  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

judgment  there  is  no  foundation  for  the  fear  that  woman  will 
thereby  become  unfitted  for  all  the  duties  she  has  hitherto 
performed. 

On  March  14, 1882,  the  Chinese  Exclusion  bill  came 
before  the  House.  Reed  took  his  place  among  the  op 
ponents  of  the  measure  and  voted  first  to  reduce  the 
term  of  exclusion  from  twenty  years  to  ten,  and  finally 
voted  against  the  bill  altogether.  It  was  vetoed  by 
President  Arthur  on  the  ground,  among  others,  that 
it  was  in  violation  of  our  treaty  with  China,  and  im 
posed  an  unreasonable  limitation.  Another  bill  was 
then  passed,  making  the  limit  ten  years,  for  which 
Reed  voted  and  which  was  signed  by  the  President. 

On  May  6, 1882,  a  tariff -commission  bill  was  brought 
forward  for  action.  Reed  supported  it,  but  took  no  par 
ticular  part  in  the  discussion  except  upon  an  amend 
ment  to  the  effect  that  no  member  of  the  commission 
should  receive  any  compensation  except  that  provided 
in  the  bill,  under  penalty  of  fine  and  imprisonment. 
Reed  said  that  the  purpose  of  the  amendment  was 
not  to  provide  any  safeguards  for  the  members  of  the 
commission  or  for  the  country, 'but  "to  inflict  an  in 
sulting  imputation  "upon  them  even  before  they  were 
appointed,  and  by  inference  "to  throw  odium  upon 
the  very  appointment  of  a  commission."  The  amend 
ment  was  defeated  and  the  commission  bill  passed. 

One  of  the  most  important  bills  of  this  Congress 
related  to  the  distribution  of  the  Geneva  Award. 
Reed  had  charge  of  the  measure  and  engineered  its 
passage  through  the  House.  Although  that  historic 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  103 

tribunal  had  rendered  its  decision  more  than  eight 
years  before,  less  than  half  the  award  had  been  dis 
tributed  and  there  still  remained  over  nine  million 
dollars  of  the  amount  in  the  National  Treasury.  The 
tribunal  had  made  the  award  to  the  United  States, 
and  not  to  the  particular  interests  suffering  from  the 
depredations  of  the  Confederate  cruisers  which  had 
been  fitted  out  in  the  home  ports  of  Great  Britain  or 
in  the  ports  of  her  colonies.  Although  the  sum  was 
thus  awarded  in  gross,  the  obligation  was  upon  the  na 
tion  equitably  to  distribute  it.  This  proved  to  be  a 
very  difficult  task.  A  distribution  of  part  of  the  sum 
had  been  ordered  in  1874,  and  from  that  time  until 
Reed  reported  the  bill  for  the  final  distribution  Con 
gress  after  Congress  had  struggled  with  the  subject 
and  had  reached  no  conclusion.  It  was  one  of  those 
questions  which  in  our  country  are  apt  to  become 
chronic,  and  of  which  an  impressive  example  is  seen 
in  the  French  Spoliation  claims,  now  more  than  a 
century  old. 

Reed  made  an  exhaustive  speech  on  the  subject,  and 
one  that  so  illuminated  all  the  doubtful  questions  con 
nected  with  it  as  to  receive  the  approbation  of  the 
House.  The  facts  with  which  he  dealt  were  scattered 
through  a  score  of  large  volumes,  but  he  declared  that 
the  controlling  facts  were  in  reality  few  in  number,  and 
he  promised  that  if  the  members  would  listen  to  him 
he  would  try  to  present  them  in  a  way  that  would  aid 
their  judgment.  He  declared  that  the  duty  devolved 
upon  Congress  to  distribute  the  money  directly  and 


104  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

that  the  subject  was  not  one  for  a  court.  It  should  not 
be  distributed  to  the  insurance  companies  because  it 
was  clear  that  they  had  charged  for  war-risks  which 
were  kept  distinct  from  the  other  hazards,  and  these 
charges  had  been  so  great  that  they  had  met  every 
dollar  paid  out  by  the  companies  for  losses,  and  had 
paid  from  "thirty-five  to  forty  per  cent  dividends  be 
sides."  The  companies  were  asking  Congress  to  pay 
the  "amount  of  money  in  consideration  of  which  they 
actually  obtained  thirty -five  per  cent  dividends."  He 
believed  that  position  involved  an  absurdity.  If  the 
subject  were  referred  to  a  court,  it  would  either  decide 
in  favor  of  the  insurers  or  it  would  not.  If  it  should  not 
decide  in  favor  of  the  insurers,  that  would  be  in  accord 
ance  with  the  decision  that  Congress  had  always  made 
and  would  make  again.  But  if  it  should  decide  in  their 
favor,  "then,"  Reed  declared,  "I  do  not  want  to  give 
them  the  chance  to  do  that.  .  .  .We  are  the  law-making 
power.  ...  If  we  make  provision  for  its  distribution 
we  must  lay  down  just  principles  which  shall  guide  the 
distribution."  The  man  who  had  lost  his  ship  and 
who  received  only  a  portion  of  the  loss  from  the  in 
surance  companies  should  be  paid  the  balance  out  of 
the  Geneva  fund,  and  the  men  who  had  paid  high  war 
premiums  should  receive  their  money  back.  It  was 
that  money  which  had  increased  the  amount  of  the 
fund.  They  had  not  been  able  to  recoup  themselves 
from  freights,  "because  they  had  been  obliged  to  take 
freight  in  competition  with  British  bottoms,  which  did 
not  pay  war  premiums."  The  claim  of  the  companies 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  105 

which  had  made  great  dividends  was  not  to  be  con 
sidered.  "Paid  once  with  splendid  profits,  why  should 
they  come  again?  Simply  because  incorporated  man 
has  the  courage  sublime  enough  to  put  the  natural 
man  to  an  open  shame?  Unincorporated  man  is  satis 
fied  to  be  paid  once.  How  many  payments  would 
satisfy  incorporated  man  human  experience  has  not 
yet  decided." 

The  insurance  companies  were  able  to  muster  strong 
support,  and  as  the  debate  proceeded  speeches  were 
made  against  Reed's  position.  Reed  replied  to  them  in 
a  brief  speech  in  which  he  contended  that  the  award 
was  "in  the  nature  of  a  fine  imposed  upon  Great  Brit 
ain  for  the  injury  she  did  our  commerce.  What  shall 
we  do  with  the  money?  Distribute  it  to  the  people  en 
gaged  in  commercial  pursuits  who  were  injured  by 
that  act  of  Great  Britain,  by  her  permitting  Confed 
erate  cruisers  to  be  fitted  out  in  her  dockyards  and  al 
lowing  them  to  be  coaled  and  refitted  in  the  ports  of  her 
colonies."  Those  opposed  to  the  bill  had  asked  that 
a  court  should  decide  the  question  according  to  the  law 
of  nations.  "What!"  Reed  replied,  "a  distribution  of 
money  among  our  own  citizens?  .  .  .  What  has  the  law 
of  nations  to  do  with  the  Calcutta  trade  in  Boston, 
or  with  the  coastwise  trade  in  California?  It  is  a  good 
mouth-filling  phrase,  but  it  does  not  mean  business." 
One  of  the  members  in  opposition  had  said  that  Con 
gress  did  not  have  as  large  a  jurisdiction  as  the  Supreme 
Court.  "Has  it  not?"  asked  Reed.  "  Then  why  does 
not  the  Supreme  Court  transact  all  the  business  of  the 


106  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

country?  What  is  this  Congress  here  for?  To  decide 
individual  rights,  sometimes  by  general  laws,  some 
times  by  particular  laws." 

The  bill  then  passed  by  a  vote  of  133  to  67.  It  is  a 
striking  tribute  to  the  justice  of  Reed's  position,  con 
sidering  the  ancient  character  of  the  controversy,  that 
his  bill  should  have  been  passed  by  the  Senate  without 
an  amendment.  In  the  latter  body  Senator  Hoar,  who 
had  charge  of  it,  said  that  some  of  the  questions  raised 
were  "a  good  deal  like  questions  in  theology.  .  .  .  The 
practical  common  sense  however  of  the  House  and 
Senate  has  brushed  aside  the  technicalities." 

The  Democrat  who  had  opposed  Reed  in  the  elec 
tion,  and  had  been  defeated  by  so  slight  a  margin, 
entered  a  contest  for  his  seat.  Although  a  liberal  allow 
ance  is  always  made  by  the  government  for  the  legal 
expenses  of  both  sides  in  a  contest  for  a  seat,  Reed 
apparently  acted  as  his  own  counsel.  He  filed  a  brief, 
a  very  short  one,  in  his  own  behalf,  covering  scarcely 
three  printed  pages.  He  declared  that  he  had  been 
reluctant  to  present  the  brief  in  the  case  because  it 
hardly  seemed  worthy  of  argument.  The  paper  pre 
sented  against  him  was,  he  said,  "utterly  vague.  This 
is  not  the  fault  of  the  able  and  distinguished  lawyer 
who  prepared  it.  He  found  nothing  sustained  by  proofs 
and  was  therefore  unable  to  make  any  definite  state 
ment.  But  it  makes  it  difficult  for  me.  It  is  hard  to 
reply  to  fog."  The  most  definite  allegation  appeared 
to  be  that  there  had  been  intimidation  of  voters  in 
favor  of  Reed.  To  this  charge  Reed  replied  in  the  brief, 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  107 

"I  can  only  say  that  my  experience  with  the  Democ 
racy  of  my  district  does  not  lead  me  to  regard  them 
as  cowards  or  sneaks.  If  I  could  scare  them  as  easily 
as  the  contestant  seems  to  think  and  by  means  as  in 
adequate  as  he  has  proved,  I  have  certainly  been  rec 
reant  in  a  plain  duty.  I  ought  to  have  scared  more 
of  them."  The  contest  was  decided  in  favor  of  Reed. 

During  the  consideration  of  the  bill  for  the  extension 
of  the  charters  of  the  national  banks  which  were  then 
about  to  expire,  Reed  was  absent  from  the  House  on 
account  of  illness.  He  was  paired  evidently  in  favor 
of  the  bill,  for  his  position  on  the  measure  could  hardly 
be  doubted.  The  views  of  one  of  his  colleagues  from 
Maine,  who  had  been  chosen  as  a  Greenbacker,  are  of 
interest  as  reflecting  the  intensity  of  the  greenback 
sentiment  in  Maine  at  that  time,  and  very  likely  in 
the  country.  This  colleague  proposed  an  amendment 
limiting  the  extension  of  the  charters  to  three  years, 
and  declared  that  the  national  banking  system  in  this 
country  was  the  most  dangerous  institution  that  ever 
afflicted  its  people.  "I  am  willing  to  concede  national 
banks  three  years,  to  allow  them  to  go  into  some  honest 
business,  but  I  want  them  after  that  to  be  eliminated 
from  the  financial  system  of  the  country." 

The  House,  having  the  sole  constitutional  power  to 
originate  revenue  bills,  passed  and  sent  to  the  Senate 
during  this  Congress  a  bill  repealing  certain  internal 
revenue  taxes  in  order  to  do  away  with  a  portion  of 
the  very  large  surplus  revenue.  The  Senate  amended 
the  bill  by  adding  to  it  a  revision  of  the  tariff. 


108  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

It  was  contended  on  the  part  of  the  House  that 
this  was  an  abuse  of  its  constitutional  prerogative, 
and  the  ancient  controversy  between  the  houses  was 
fought  over  again.  The  Senate  had  taken  the  position, 
against  the  view  of  some  of  the  greatest  lawyers  who 
had  ever  sat  there,  that  the  passage  by  the  House  of 
any  sort  of  tax  bill,  however  insignificant  in  character, 
conferred  upon  the  Senate  the  right  to  range  over 
the  whole  field  of  taxation  and  radically  to  revise  the 
revenue  system  of  the  country,  without  regard  to 
whether  the  revision  was  pertinent  to  the  subjects  in 
the  House  bill  or  not.  The  ancient  contention  of  the 
House  was  that,  when  it  sent  a  tax  bill  to  the  Senate, 
the  right  of  the  latter  to  amend  was  in  fairness  re 
stricted  to  the  taxes  imposed  by  the  bill,  and  that  the 
broad  claim  of  the  Senate  would  reduce  to  insignificant 
proportions  the  prerogative  of  the  House,  which  was 
the  result  of  one  of  the  great  compromises  in  the  Con 
stitutional  Convention.  The  purpose  of  that  compro 
mise  was  to  give  a  substantial  concession  to  the  large 
states  for  the  equal  share  which  was  conferred  upon  the 
small  states  in  the  great  powers  of  the  Senate,  and  to 
confer  upon  the  popular  body  where  the  states  were 
represented  according  to  population,  an  important 
prerogative  with  respect  to  taxation  bills. 

When  the  House  bill  came  back  thus  amended  by 
the  Senate,  the  Democrats  inaugurated  a  vigorous 
filibuster  against  action,  and  the  House  was  unable  to 
make  any  progress  under  the  rules.  Reed,  from  the 
Committee  on  Rules,  reported  a  special  order  the 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  109 

effect  of  which  would  be  to  give  the  majority  of  the 
House  control  over  the  situation.  The  Democrats 
then  filibustered  against  the  adoption  of  the  rule, 
using  all  the  various  motions  that  could  be  entertained, 
from  a  parliamentary  standpoint.  A  long  contro 
versy  ensued  and  a  partisan  debate,  in  which  the  pro 
ceeding  was  fiercely  denounced  by  Cox,  Blackburn, 
and  other  Democrats.  Reed  in  reply  admitted  that 
if  it  were  not  for  a  great  emergency  he  would  not  favor 
the  rule,  but  the  House  was  committed  to  the  passage 
of  revenue  legislation.  The  Democrats  were  preventing 
the  carrying  out  of  this  policy  by  systematic  obstruc 
tion.  As  to  the  constitutional  question  he  declared  that 
in  his  judgment  the  bill  as  it  was  amended  did  not  show 
sufficient  deference  to  the  principles  which  should 
govern  under  the  Constitution.  "But  why,"  he  asked, 
"was  that  question  not  raised?  .  .  .  Why  was  it  that 
the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  contented  himself  with 
language  upon  the  subject,  instead  of  bringing  in  a 
resolution  upon  the  constitutional  point?"  He  de 
clared  that  the  question  should  be  referred  to  a  com 
mittee  of  conference  to  be  appointed  by  the  two  Houses. 
At  a  later  stage  of  the  discussion  Reed  expressed  even 
more  strongly  his  opinion  upon  the  constitutional 
question.  He  declared  that  the  Senate  had  transcended 
its  power  in  the  amendment  which  it  had  made. 

A  conference  was  at  last  agreed  to,  but  in  a  form 
which  displeased  the  Senate  and  especially  the  Demo 
cratic  members,  none  of  whom  would  serve  upon  the 
conference  committee.  Mr.  Harris,  the  Democratic 


110  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

leader,  said  in  reply  to  a  question  by  the  President 
of  the  Senate  that  he  believed  the  Chair  would  be 
warranted  in  assuming  that  no  Democrat  would  serve 
on  the  committee.  The  opposition  in  the  Senate, 
however,  was  due  not  to  its  own  infringement  on 
the  prerogative  of  the  House,  but  to  the  circumstance 
that  the  House  did  not  complacently  assent  to  the  in 
fringement.  The  outcome  of  the  controversy  was  that 
the  conferees  of  both  Houses  agreed  upon  a  bill  which 
did  in  effect  reduce  customs  duties,  although  a  bill 
affecting  internal  revenue  taxation  only  had  passed 
the  House.  The  Republicans  had  yielded  upon  the 
constitutional  ground  sufficiently  to  warrant  the  taunt 
of  Mr.  J.  Randolph  Tucker:  "They  swapped  the  Con 
stitution  for  the  high  tariff."  Reed  voted  in  silence  to 
accept  the  conference  report,  evidently  contenting  him 
self  with  the  resolution  passed  by  the  House  protest 
ing  against  the  infraction  of  its  constitutional  rights 
by  the  Senate.  A  brief  reference  to  the  matter  in  his 
diary  shows  that  he  was  impressed  with  the  brilliancy 
of  the  parliamentary  tactics  which,  out  of  a  situation 
which  seemed  well-nigh  hopeless,  secured  the  enact 
ment  of  the  law. 

During  this  Congress  Reed  supported  the  civil- 
service-reform  bill  and  he  also  delivered  a  speech, 
longer  than  he  usually  made,  against  "free  ships"  and 
in  favor  of  developing  the  shipbuilding  industry  in  the 
United  States.  His  chief  argument  was  based  upon 
the  desirability  of  being  able  to  build  our  warships, 
and  especially  to  make  repairs  in  time  of  war  and  to 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  m 

provide  munitions  of  war.  He  made  a  report  from  his 
committee  on  certain  land  grants  given  by  the  govern 
ment  to  the  railroads.  In  some  cases  the  report  affirmed 
that  the  conditions  of  the  grants  had  been  complied 
with  and  in  other  cases  recommended  forfeiture.  It 
was  politically  dangerous  at  that  time  not  to  report 
in  favor  of  a  forfeiture,  regardless  of  what  the  law  and 
facts  were.  When  Reed  made  this  report,  he  was  en 
gaged  in  his  campaign  for  reelection.  A  Texas  colonel 
stumped  his  district  and  made  charges  against  him  on 
account  of  his  action  on  some  of  the  grants.  The 
charges  evidently  made  little  impression.  In  that  year, 
in  Maine,  the  Congressmen  were  elected  by  the  state 
at  large,  and  Reed  ran  ahead  of  his  ticket  through 
out  the  state.  After  the  election  he  made  a  speech  in 
the  City  Hall  in  Portland,  and  noticed  for  the  first 
time  what  he  called  the  "vile  personal  attack"  that 
had  been  made  upon  him;  and  he  added,  amid  great 
cheering,  "I  am  proud  to  think  I  have  never  been 
called  upon  to  answer  it.  You  have  answered  it  by 
your  votes,  more  thoroughly  and  fully  than  I  could 
have  done." 

On  December  12,  1882,  Reed  supported  the  bill  for 
a  Congressional  Library  building.  He  traced  the  his 
tory  of  the  collection,  from  the  small  number  of  books 
intended  for  the  use  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress 
until  it  had  become  the  largest  collection  in  America. 
He  declared  that  no  man  with  any  love  for  books 
could  "visit  the  rooms  of  the  Congressional  Library 
without  indignant  feelings  of  sorrow  and  regret  to  see 


112  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  contemptuous  treatment  by  a  great  nation  of  the 
rich  treasures  of  literature  and  learning  which  are  scat 
tered  around  on  the  floors  and  in  every  passageway." 
This  condition  could  not  be  met  by  the  proposal  that, 
as  it  was  originally  intended  to  be  only  a  Congressional 
Library,  one  half  of  the  books  ought  to  be  burned. 
"Which  half,"  Reed  asked,  "the  half  which  the  gen 
tleman  from  Maryland  does  not  like  or  the  half  which 
any  other  gentleman  in  the  House  does  not  like?  .  .  . 
In  a  great  library  meant  for  a  great  nation,  nothing 
pertaining  to  a  library  is  out  of  place."  He  referred  to 
the  effective  use  that  Macaulay,  in  writing  his  history 
of  England,  had  made  of  pamphlets  which  had  been 
rejected  as  ephemeral  rubbish  by  other  historians. 
We  were  rapidly  approaching  the  nations  of  the  old 
world  in  numbers,  we  were  in  fact  even  topping  them 
in  wealth,  "  and  we  shall  equal  them  in  civilization  as 
well."  One  of  the  brightest  marks  of  civilization,  "one 
of  the  surest  guarantees  of  the  spread  of  literature  and 
of  knowledge,  is  the  preservation  of  those  means  where 
by  knowledge  and  wisdom  come  to  men.  Let  us  make 
a  building  worthy  not  only  of  ourselves  but  of  the  ob 
ject  for  which  we  build  it." 

The  plea  for  narrow  economy  prevailed  and  the  bill 
failed.  This  was  a  fortunate  circumstance,  however, 
for  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  helping  in  a  later  Con 
gress  to  make  more  ample  provision  than  could  then 
have  been  hoped  for,  and  the  splendid  building  which 
now  holds  the  Library  was  the  result. 

On  February  21,  1883,  Reed  suggested  that  the  hall 


WINNING  LEADERSHIP  113 

of  the  House  be  divided  into  two  parts,  one  part  to  be 
used  for  the  desks  and  the  other  to  be  "reserved,  in 
which  members  can  be  heard.  But  to  put  desks  in 
the  middle  of  this  ten-acre  lot  in  which  we  are  now 
doing  business  would  be  the  greatest  mistake  in  the 
world."  Reed  was  impressed  with  the  great  diffi 
culty  of  doing  business  in  such  an  enormous  hall,  far 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  legislative  chamber  in 
the  world,  and  more  than  twice  as  large  as  the  English 
House  of  Commons  which  had  a  much  larger  member 
ship.  He  wished  a  hall  of  a  proper  size  for  doing  busi 
ness,  so  that  a  member,  whether  or  not  he  had  what 
Reed  called  a  "magnificent  voice,"  could  be  heard. 


CHAPTER  IX 

ROUGH  AND   TUMBLE 

THERE  was  much  rough-and-tumble  fighting  in  the 
House  in  those  days,  and  very  much  of  it  fell  to  Reed 
on  account  of  his  readiness  and  also  because  of  his 
place  on  the  Rules  Committee  and  his  chairmanship 
of  the  Judiciary  Committee.  A  great  deal  of  it  was 
on  trifling  questions  of  procedure  or  on  unimportant 
measures,  and  is  no  longer  of  any  consequence  except 
perhaps  in  showing  Reed's  everyday  manner  in  deal 
ing  with  the  commonplaces  of  business,  and  the  offhand 
banter  with  which  he  enlivened  the  dull  routine  of  the 
House.  One  day  Mr.  Springer  of  Illinois  called  upon 
Reed  to  prove  a  proposition  that  the  latter  had  put 
forth. 

REED  :  Now  I  cannot  teach  the  gentleman  from  Illinois 
any  wisdom;  I  cannot  hope  to  do  it. 

SPRINGER  :  No,  you  cannot. 

REED  :  No,  I  cannot.  It  is  necessary,  for  the  plant  to  grow, 
not  only  that  there  should  be  seeds  sown,  but  also  that  there 
shall  be  soil  in  which  to  imbed  them.  .  .  .  The  great  difficulty 
is,  not  that  I  cannot  tell  him  what  is  the  right  way,  if  he 
would  be  instructed;  but  the  difficulty  is  in  making  con 
nection  at  the  other  end  of  the  road.  .  .  .  Now  I  trust  the 
House  appreciates  the  hopelessness  of  the  situation  and  will 
allow  me  to  sit  down. 

Mr.  Cox  of  New  York  referred  to  the  drinking  of 
liquor  in  Maine,  where  there  was  a  prohibitory  law 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  H5 

and  said:  "The  Republican  party  drinks  a  good  deal 
of  whisky  clandestinely  that  we  do  not  know  anything 
about."  "When  my  friend  from  New  York  takes  it," 
retorted  Reed,  "it  does  not  remain  clandestine  very 
long." 

Mr.  Townshend  of  Illinois  complained  that  he  could 
not  make  a  five-minute  speech  against  the  tariff  "but 
they  cry  'vote,'  'vote/  and  seek  to  put  me  down." 
"It  is  because  you  make  the  same  speech  every  time," 
said  Reed.  "It  is  not  the  speech  we  complain  of  so 
much  as  it  is  the  monotony  of  the  thing;  we  want 
a  change."  On  one  occasion  Springer  endeavored  to 
secure  unanimous  consent  to  correct  a  statement  he 
had  previously  made  in  a  partisan  speech.  REED: 
"No  correction  needed,  we  did  not  think  it  was  so 
when  it  was  made."  On  another  day  Springer  accused 
Reed  of  making  light  of  his  (Springer's)  remarks. 
REED:  "I  will  say  to  the  gentleman  that  if  I  'made 
light'  of  his  remarks  it  is  more  than  he  ever  made 
of  them  himself." 

On  January  3,  1883,  in  a  discussion  of  Mississippi 
River  improvements,  Mr.  Randall  referred  in  a  lauda 
tory  manner  to  what  he  and  his  party  had  been  will 
ing  to  do  for  the  river.  He  was  followed  by  Mr.  Cox, 
to  similar  effect.  Reed  replied  that  he  had  heard 
Randall  make  the  same  speech  with  more  or  less 
enthusiasm  six  times,  and  had  read  it  in  two  antece 
dent  records.  "I  approve  of  that  method.  .  .  .  The 
first  time  a  man  talks  he  has  to  attend  to  what  he 
says;  the  eighth  or  ninth  time  he  has  an  opportunity 


116  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

to  put  in  the  gestures  and  to  look  after  his  personal 
interests."  [Laughter.]  Reed  intimated  that  Randall 
had  an  eye  on  the  Speakership,  and  was  "enabled  to 
put  himself  right  with  the  Mississippi  River  gentlemen 
if  they  choose  to  believe  his  words  in  defiance  of  his 
deeds.  ...  I  am  glad  to  see  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  prance  forward  in  his  usual  style."  A  member 
asked  to  whom  Reed  referred. 

I  refer  to  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  Mr.  Cox,  who 
last  ornamented  the  situation.  [Laughter.]  It  was  a  blessed 
comfort  to  see  him  step  forward  because  we  knew  that 
another  candidate  had  entered  the  ring,  if  I  may  use  such 
an  undignified  expression.  [Laughter.]  This  House  and  the 
country  wait  in  solemn  state  to  hear  the  next  candidate  for 
the  Speakership  present  his  views  of  life  and  duty  with 
reference  to  the  Mississippi. 

Reed  did  not  take  Mr.  Cox  at  his  own  valuation, 
for  the  latter  had  pretensions  to  being  considered  a 
wit.  But  he  put  a  high  estimate  upon  him  in  other 
respects.  He  subsequently  wrote  of  him:  — 

Mr.  Cox  was  not  an  orator,  hardly  a  leader,  and  perhaps 
not  a  wit;  but  in  action  he  was  a  whole  skirmish  line,  and 
has  covered  more  movements  of  the  Democratic  party,  and 
led  it  out  of  more  parliamentary  pitfalls  than  any  of  its 
orators  and  all  its  leaders  put  together. 

The  House,  as  has  been  seen,  was  very  narrowly 
Republican,  and  there  was  every  incentive  for  indulg 
ing  in  obstruction  when  a  measure  was  brought  for 
ward  that  was  especially  obnoxious  to  the  minority. 
Election  contests,  when  it  was  proposed  to  unseat 
members  of  the  minority,  would  usually  arouse  the 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  117 

fiercest  partisan  passion  and  lead  to  the  most  deter 
mined  obstruction.  In  those  times  upon  such  an  occa 
sion  the  war  was  sure  to  be  fought  over  again  and  the 
House  would  become  the  scene  of  great  disorder.  An 
election  contest  from  South  Carolina  precipitated  a 
violent  outbreak  which  lasted  for  several  days,  and  as 
progress  was  impossible  under  the  regular  rules  of  the 
House,  a  special  order  was  reported  by  the  Committee 
on  Rules,  and  Reed  was  put  in  charge  of  the  measure. 
During  the  days  that  followed,  Reed  was  therefore  the 
leader  of  the  House  so  far  as  it  could  be  said  to  have 
any  leader.  They  were  days  of  somewhat  more  or 
derly  proceeding  but  were  charged  with  great  excite 
ment.  Reed's  argument  on  the  rule  consisted  in  quot 
ing  precedents  from  Democratic  speakers  and  others 
when  that  party  was  in  control  of  the  House  and  re 
sponsible  for  its  action,  and  in  reply  Randall  and  his 
Democratic  colleagues  cited  the  speeches  made  by 
Republican  members  when  that  party  was  in  the 
minority  and  when  it  resorted  to  dilatory  tactics  to 
prevent  action.  The  ancient  practice  of  filibustering 
had  at  least  very  much  simplified  the  method  of  pro 
ceeding.  An  argument  had  been  thoroughly  devel 
oped  both  for  the  minority  and  majority  and  was 
well  seasoned  by  precedent.  Each  side  had  only  to 
cite  as  authority  the  arguments  put  forward  by  the 
other  side  in  some  previous  Congress  and  to  accuse  it 
of  inconsistency.  Upon  that  subject  both  sides  were 
equally  inconsistent,  and  Reed  with  the  others  was 
accused  of  inconsistency  and  was  doubtless  guilty  of  it. 


118  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Upon  the  great  public  questions  Reed's  course  was 
a  remarkably  consistent  one,  but  he  was  not  much 
troubled  by  accusations  of  inconsistency.  This  is  the 
way  he  dealt  with  the  subject  in  a  later  Congress :  — 

I  do  not  promise  the  members  of  this  House  whenever 
they  listen  to  me  to  give  them  wisdom  of  adamant.  I  do  not 
promise  them  I  shall  not  change  my  opinion  when  I  see  good 
reason  for  doing  it.  I  only  promise  that  I  will  give  them 
honestly  what  my  opinion  is  at  the  time.  They  must  take 
their  chances  of  its  being  for  eternity.  [Laughter  and  ap 
plause.] 

The  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Forty-seventh 
Congress  was  destined  to  be  the  only  Republican 
House  chosen  between  1872  and  1888.  The  factional 
strife  in  the  Republican  party  in  the  state  of  New 
York,  the  overturn  in  that  party  caused  by  the 
succession  of  Mr.  Arthur  to  the  presidency,  and  the 
antecedent  squabble  over  the  New  York  collectorship, 
were  probably  the  causes  chiefly  responsible  for  the 
reaction  which  showed  itself  in  the  election  of  1882. 
The  division  of  the  party  into  "Stalwarts"  and  "Half- 
breeds"  was  more  clearly  marked  in  that  state  than 
any  other,  and  led  to  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Folger  for 
governor  by  a  phenomenal  majority  which  had  much 
to  do  with  making  Mr.  Cleveland,  who  was  elected,  the 
candidate  of  his  party  for  the  presidency. 

Reed,  as  has  been  seen,  was  chosen  a  representative 
at  large  from  Maine,  leading  the  other  candidates  of 
his  party  on  the  ticket.  The  Speaker  of  the  preceding 
House,  Keifer,  was  conceded  the  renomination  by  the 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  119 

Republicans.  Carlisle  displaced  Randall  as  the  Demo 
cratic  leader,  on  account  of  the  protectionist  principles 
of  the  latter,  and  was  nominated  for  the  Speakership 
by  the  Democrats  and  elected. 

Thus  Randall  retired  from  the  leadership  of  his 
party  in  the  House.  He  had  led  it  when  in  the  minority. 
During  three  Congresses  he  had  been  Speaker.  In  the 
latter  position  he  had  rendered  the  country  a  signal 
service,  and  had  possibly  saved  it  from  anarchy  and 
civil  war.  When  he  was  Speaker,  in  1877,  the  great 
majority  of  his  party  in  the  House  and  in  the  country 
believed  that  Tilden  had  been  elected  to  the  presi 
dency.  Randall  discarded  the  practice  he  himself  had 
so  often  followed  and  refused  to  entertain  dilatory 
motions,  to  the  end  that  the  count  of  the  presidential 
vote  might  be  consummated  before  the  fourth  of 
March,  the  day  on  which  the  new  term  was  to  begin. 
If  Grant's  term  had  come  to  its  constitutional  end  and 
his  successor  had  not  been  determined  upon,  chaos 
itself  would  have  intervened.  The  extent  of  the 
damage  would  have  been  incalculable  with  a  weak  or  a 
small  man  in  the  Speaker's  chair,  and  Randall  reached 
a  sublime  height  on  that  day  when  he  put  before  him 
self  the  good  of  the  country  and,  partisan  as  he  usually 
was,  and  in  defiance  of  many  of  his  own  party  and 
of  the  precedents  which  he  himself  had  helped  to 
establish,  he  cleared  the  way  for  the  completion  of 
the  count.  Reed  said  of  him,  "Perhaps  there  may 
have  been  better  parliamentarians,  men  of  broader 
intellect  and  more  learning,  but  there  have  been  few 


120  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

men  with  a  will  more  like  iron  or  a  courage  more 
unfaltering."  1 

Keifer  became  the  titular  leader  of  the  minority  in 
the  House,  through  his  nomination  for  Speaker ;  but 
without  any  disparagement  of  that  gentleman,  Reed 
had  shown  himself  the  most  conspicuous  Republican 
member  and  was  therefore  called  upon  to  do  very 
much  of  the  work  of  the  fighting  leader. 

This  Congress  contributed  little  legislation  of  much 
importance.  The  division  of  the  control  of  the  depart 
ments  of  government  between  the  two  parties  pre 
vented  legislation  of  a  partisan  character.  And  indeed, 
while  there  was  very  much  of  partisanship  between 
1873  and  1889,  very  little  of  it  found  its  place  upon 
the  statute  books,  because  of  the  circumstance  that  no 
party  had  control  of  both  the  presidency  and  Congress 
during  that  time  except  for  a  period  of  two  years. 
Although  there  was  much  political  skirmishing,  there 
was  very  little  important  legislation  beyond  that  of  the 
routine  so^t  in  the  Congress  which  was  chosen  in  1882. 

The  proceedings  of  this  Congress  do  not  make  in 
teresting  reading,  and  if  they  were  not  occasionally 
relieved  by  the  flashes  of  Reed's  wit,  they  would  be 
intensely  dull.  He  made  a  serious  attack  on  the  rules 
of  the  House,  in  a  speech  which  foreshadowed  the 
position  he  was  to  take,  when  he  became  Speaker,  in 
favor  of  a  system  of  rules  under  which  the  House  could 
do  business.  On  February  7,  1884,  he  called  attention 
to  the  necessity  for  amendment  of  the  rules,  pointing 
1  Saturday  Evening  Post,  December  9,  1899. 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  121 

out  that  the  House  under  its  procedure  could  trans 
act  only  eight  per  cent  of  its  business,  and  that  the 
provisions  of  the  rules  must  hinge  upon  that  important 
fact.  Speaking  on  the  same  line  February  18,  with 
regard  to  a  proposition  to  take  up  the  International 
Copyright  bill  under  a  special  order,  Reed  said  sarcas 
tically  :  "Our  rules  were  intended  to  kill  bills;  and  why 
should  they  not  be  left  to  operate  as  intended?  "  The 
House  refused  to  take  up  this  bill  for  consideration, 
a  majority  having  voted  for  it  but  not  the  two  thirds 
necessary  for  the  suspension  of  the  rules.  Reed  was 
one  of  those  who  voted  for  its  consideration.  Under 
the  later  system,  which  was  adopted  during  Reed's 
Speakership,  an  important  measure  like  this  would 
have  received  consideration. 

Filibustering  continued  upon  every  occasion  which 
the  minority  deemed  a  proper  one,  and  although  the 
House  was  Democratic  by  sixty  majority,  that  party 
was  very  often  unable  to  command  a  quorum.  The 
old  comedy  of  bringing  members  in  under  arrest  was 
repeatedly  performed.  Finally,  when  a  Republican 
member  was  brought  in,  a  motion  was  made  to  impose 
a  small  fine  upon  him  and  it  was  insisted  upon  by  the 
Democratic  members.  Reed  ridiculed  the  proposition 
out  of  the  House.  He  asked  the  Democrats  if  they 
were  willing  to  go  to  the  country  presenting  the  spec 
tacle  of  a  Democratic  House  two  hundred  strong  not 
able  to  get  within  sixty  of  its  membership  present, 

and  yet  punishing  a  gentleman  on  this  side  of  the  House 
because  he  was  doing  what  sixty  of  your  own  members  have 


122  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

done.  .  .  .  We  offered  you  complete  control  of  the  House 
and  you  did  not  dare  to  take  it.  ...  It  is  because  you  did 
not  dare  to  trust  yourselves.  You  knew  yourselves  better 
than  we  did.  Here  you  have  been  struggling  all  night  long, 
two  hundred  strong,  to  pass  a  bill  which  your  gentle  hearts 
are  set  upon,  to  pay  men  for  Creek  wars  and  disturbances  of 
1835  or  some  other  unknown  periods,  and  it  has  come  down 
to  this,  that  you  solidify  at  last  upon  a  fine  of  five  dollars 
against  the  member  from  Pennsylvania,  and  the  majestic 
heart  of  the  Democratic  party  is  just  now  stirred  in  pursuit 
of  the  Honorable  S.  S.  Cox  and  another  of  your  leaders 
who  seem  somehow  or  another  to  have  escaped.  [Renewed 
laughter.]  .  .  .  The  best  thing  on  earth  you  can  do  is  to  go 
quietly  away  and  try  to  make  the  country  think  that  this 
thing  has  never  occurred.  Now,  is  not  what  I  have  said 
directly  to  the  point?  I  submit  to  the  candid  judgments  of 
the  men  I  see  before  me,  calmed  and  soothed  by  what  I  have 
said.  [Laughter.] 

Reed  continued  his  opposition  to  the  policy  of  not 
providing  for  the  Navy.  At  the  end  of  the  Civil  War, 
on  account  of  the  improvements  in  naval  architecture 
and  especially  in  the  direction  of  building  armored 
vessels,  our  Navy  was  powerful  compared  with  foreign 
navies;  but  it  was  permitted  to  remain  as  it  was  at 
that  time.  In  the  course  of  the  next  fifteen  years 
progress  in  naval  construction  abroad  had  made  our 
Navy  practically  obsolete.  Reed  was  strongly  in  favor 
of  having  a  modern  navy,  although  he  did  not  favor 
extravagant  appropriations.  When  the  Naval  bill, 
upon  which  he  had  previously  spoken,  was  returned 
from  the  Senate  with  amendments  in  favor  of  strength 
ening  the  Navy,  Reed  attempted  to  have  Randall, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  bill,  declare  what  his  position 
was  on  the  Senate  propositions.  Randall  refused  to 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  123 

make  it  known.  Reed  then  made  a  strong  speech 
showing  the  necessity  of  dealing  with  the  situation 
and  the  failure  of  Randall  to  do  it.  He  insisted  that 
ordinary  parliamentary  courtesy,  "which  sometimes 
goes  beyond  the  absolute  necessities  of  the  case," 
would  indicate  that  Randall  should  condescend  to 
make  an  explanation  to  the  House  at  large  just  as  if  he 
did  not  know  that 

he  had  at  his  back  gentlemen  who  cared  nothing  about  what 
was  in  the  Senate  amendments  either  one  way  or  another. 
Think  of  a  great  nation  without  a  navy  treated  to  the  two 
reasons  now  given  why  a  navy  should  not  be  built.  First, 
the  department  would  be  liable  under  the  Senate  amend 
ment  to  build  ships;  and  second,  another  bill  was  pending 
which  could  not  possibly  be  passed  and  therefore  this  amend 
ment  should  not  pass.  .  .  .  Here  you  are  with  the  respon 
sibilities  of  the  country  upon  you.  The  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  takes  a  gentle  refuge  in  the  past  —  that  home 
of  democracy  —  the  place  where  they  live  and  from  which 
they  never  go.  He  says,  "We  are  not  responsible  for  the 
paralysis  of  the  Navy;  that  belongs  to  the  past."  To-day  the 
gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  is  chairman  of  the  Commit 
tee  on  Appropriations.  If  he  is  not  responsible  for  the 
present,  who  is?  ...  Who  is  responsible  for  the  paralysis 
of  the  present?  Will  he  undertake  to  deny  his  responsibility 
for  a  naval  appropriation  bill  which  passed  this  House 
with  no  appropriation  for  ordinance?  .  .  .  Why,  sir,  what  an 
attempt!  Does  the  Democratic  party  intend  to  go  before 
the  country  and  simply  disclaim  responsibility  as  to  the  past, 
hoping  thereby  to  shirk  its  responsibility  as  to  the  present? 
.  .  .  The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  says  we  will  never 
have  any  war.  .  .  .  The  history  of  mankind  is  to  the  con 
trary,  and  it  shows  that  no  wise  nation  with  surplus  reve 
nue  ever  before  presented  the  defenseless  spectacle  which 
this  country  presents. 

In  a  later  speech  he  congratulated  the  Democratic 


124  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

party  upon  the  advance  it  had  made  regarding  the 
Navy.  A  gentleman  from  Tennessee  had  declared 
that  the  proper  Navy  for  the  United  States  was  "a 
couple  of  logs  with  an  American  flag  fastened  to  them; 
and  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut,  Mr.  Eaton,  has 
to-day  advanced  as  far  as  a  canoe."  [Laughter.] 

During  the  same  session  Reed  had  an  amusing  col 
loquy  with  Cox.  He  quoted  from  a  speech  on  the 
Naval  bill  made  by  the  latter,  in  which  he  cited  an 
opinion  of  the  "Admiral  of  the  American  Navy" 
against  the  construction  of  some  steel  cruisers.  Reed 
attempted  to  unravel  the  mystery  and  ascertain  who 
the  "Admiral  of  the  Navy"  was,  and  he  concluded 
that  Cox  had  confused  himself  with  that  official  and 
had  cited  an  opinion  of  his  own.  Reed  then  pro 
ceeded  :  — 

Now  I  remember  but  one  historical  parallel  to  this. 
George  IV,  an  accomplished  gentleman,  —  and  there  the 
parallel  is  perfect  with  my  friend  from  New  York,  —  a  man 
who  had  been  busy  about  great  affairs,  —  and  the  parallel 
continues,  —  had  become  so  interested  in  those  great  affairs 
that  he  actually  labored  under  the  hallucination  that  he 
was  present  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  and  he  insisted  upon 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  endorsing  his  statement.  Now  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Cox]  has  been  at  the  head 
of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  ...  he  has  evidently  so 
devoted  his  mind  to  the  subject  of  the  Navy,  has  evidently 
become  so  fired  with  enthusiasm  upon  the  subject,  has  so 
absorbed  himself  in  it  that  he  has  forgotten  his  own  person 
ality,  —  a  great  matter,  —  and  for  the  moment  has  imagined 
himself  to  be  the  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  American 
Navy. 

-    Reed's  speech  had  an  irritating  effect  and  Cox  re- 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  125 

joined  that  "  if  ignorance  and  impudence  would  make 
a  statesman  the  gentleman  from  Maine  would  be  a 
Bismarck,"  and  there  was  a  good  deal  more  to  the 
same  effect.  Reed  replied  that  Cox  had  avoided  the 
facts.  He  insisted  that  he  had  proved  that  the  "Ad 
miral  of  the  Navy"  did  not  say  what  Cox  had  alleged, 
but  that  the  statement  was  made  by  Cox  himself, 
"and  he  retorts  with  gross  personal  allusions.  ...  He 
quotes  himself,  causing  his  s^tement  to  be  promul 
gated  over  this  country  as  a«t£ttement  of  the  'Admiral 
of  the  Navy/" 

Cox  made  the  mistake  of  taking  Reed's  banter  seri 
ously.  He  denied  Reed's  statement  and  asked  leave  to 
present  in  the  "Record"  an  explanation,  which  he  did 
at  considerable  length,  but  it  seemed  strictly  to  corrob 
orate  the  assertion  made  by  Reed.  Cox  embodied  in 
his  statement  the  explanation,  "On  the  hasty  glance  I 
cast  on  it,  I  did  not  observe  that  the  quotation  marks 
did  not  refer  to  Admiral  Porter." 

On  December  17,  1884,  the  race  question  was 
brought  under  discussion  by  an  amendment  proposed 
with  more  frankness  than  discretion,  by  Mr.  Crisp  of 
Georgia,  to  a  bill  establishing  an  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission.  The  amendment  provided  that  a  certain 
section  of  the  bill  should  not  be  so  construed  "as  to 
prevent  any  railroad  company  from  providing  sepa 
rate  accommodations  for  white  and  colored  persons." 
The  color  issue  was  not  at  that  time  a  popular  one  to 
advance  in  national  legislation,  and  Mr.  Breckinridge 
of  Arkansas  aimed  to  accomplish  the  same  end  by 


126  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

proposing  a  substitute,  which  was  not  so  brutally 
frank.  The  substitute  omitted  all  reference  to  color 
and  provided  that  the  act  should  not  be  construed  so 
as  to  deny  to  railroads  "the  right  to  classify  passen 
gers  as  they  may  deem  best  for  the  public  comfort 
and  safety."  This  gave  Reed  an  opportunity  to  make 
a  sarcastic  speech  which  proved  absolutely  destruc 
tive  of  the  proposition.  He  declared  that  he  rejoiced  to 
see  the  question  lifted  by  the  suggestion  of  Breckin- 
ridge  from  a  mere  question  of  politics  or  of  color. 

This  at  once  ceases  to  be  a  question  of  politics  or  color  and 
has  now  become  a  question  of  assortment;  and  now  this 
House,  which  is  determined  to  pursue  these  robber  barons, 
has  before  it  the  plain  question  whether  it  will  not  merely 
leave  to  them  the  privilege  of  assorting  us,  but  whether 
it  will  absolutely  confer  upon  them  the  privilege  of  assort 
ment  by  the  direct  enactment  on  the  part  of  Congress. 

Now  I  appeal  to  this  House,  engaged  as  it  is  in  the  pursuit 
of  wicked  monopolies,  if  it  intends  to  confer  upon  them  a 
privilege  of  assortment  without  rights  by  law.  Why  surely 
we  must  have  some  treasury  regulation  as  to  the  method  of 
assortment.  Are  we  to  be  assorted  on  the  ground  of  size? 
Am  I  to  be  put  into  one  car  because  of  my  size  and  the 
gentleman  from  Arkansas  into  another  car  because  of  his? 
Is  this  to  be  done  on  account  of  our  unfortunate  difference 
of  measurement,  or  are  we  to  be  sorted  on  the  mustache 
ground? .  .  . 

If  not  any  of  these,  what  basis  of  assortment  are  we  to 
have?  For  my  part  I  object  to  having  these  robber  barons 
overlook  and  assort  us  on  any  whimsical  basis  they  may 
undertake  to  set  up. 

He  made  a  trenchant  attack  on  the  Post-Office  ap 
propriation  bill.  Townshend  of  Illinois,  who  had  the 
bill  in  charge,  lost  his  temper  completely  under  the 


ROUGH  AND  TUMBLE  127 

criticism.  He  declared  that  "every  clown"  on  the  other 
side  had  ridiculed  the  bill,  and  he  directly  attacked 
Reed  whose  denunciation  of  it  had  made  him  wince. 
He  accused  the  latter  of  defending  every  extravagant 
appropriation  that  was  proposed  and  of  defending 
peculators  and  railroad  corporations.  This  was  far 
outside  the  courtesies  of  debate,  and  a  member  called 
him  to  order,  demanding  that  the  words  be  taken 
down.  Reed  interposed  to  say  that  that  would  give 
them  too  much  significance,  but  he  insisted  that  Town- 
shend  should  specify  instances.  Townshend  appar 
ently  could  not,  or  did  not,  do  this,  but  adhered  to 
generalities  in  his  charge  against  Reed.  When  he  re 
sumed  his  seat,  the  latter  took  the  floor.  He  said 
simply  that  there  were  two  sets  of  people  for  whose 
opinion  he  cared  a  great  deal:  his  constituency  which 
knew  him,  and  the  House  which  knew  Townshend. 
"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  I  shall  stand  vindi 
cated  before  both."  He  then  broke  into  a  superb  sen 
tence  which  showed  the  real  dignity  of  his  attitude  and 
his  freedom  from  demagogy.  Referring  to  the  taunt 
about  the  corporations,  he  declared :  — 

While  I  stand  here  a  member  of  this  House,  there  is  no 
man  on  the  face  of  the  earth  so  poor  nor  any  corporation  so 
rich  that  I  will  prostitute  myself  to  injustice  for  the  sake 
of  that  temporary  advantage  which  comes  of  maintaining 
a  false  position  because  some  dishonest  men  are  clamoring 
against  me. 

On  February  15,  1884,  Reed  made  an  important 
speech  in  Philadelphia.  Speaking  of  the  agitation  of 
the  tariff,  he  said:  — 


128  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

I  know  we  should  all  be  glad  if  we  could  step  aside  and  say, 
"Now  let  us  have  a  peaceful  day  of  rest.  Politics  are  over 
and  the  millennium  is  begun."  But  we  live  in  a  world  of  sin 
and  sorrow.  Otherwise  there  would  not  be  any  Democratic 
party.  I  take  it  that  I  speak  to  an  audience  who  believe  in 
protection  to  American  industry.  Not  to  those  who  believe 
in  fostering  a  few  petty  industries  to  the  exclusion  of  others, 
but  who  believe  in  that  broad  principle  and  system  which 
gives  to  American  labor  the  entire  markets  of  America. 

He  declared  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep  up  the 
fight. 

No  sooner  is  a  monument  erected  than  the  gnawing  tooth 
of  time  sets  itself  upon  it.  The  forces  of  evil  are  as  continuous 
and  determined  as  the  forces  of  right,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  right  is  only  right  by  a  very  small  majority  that  has  got 
to  be  kept  up  every  day.  This  world  is  one  where  we  can 
not  always  have  our  own  way.  There  have  been  times  when 
I  have  not  been  able  to  have  mine.  Therefore  a  good  many 
men  that  I  would  have  liked  to  punish  are  still  flourishing 
upon  the  earth.  Life  is  a  perpetual  source  of  disappointment. 
You  can  never  do  what  you  would  like  to  do.  You  have 
always  to  do  the  best  thing  you  can  do. 

The  leading  journals  credited  him  with  being  the 
most  brilliant  man  upon  his  side  of  the  House. 
"His  speeches,"  one  correspondent  declared,  "always 
bristle  with  points.  His  points  of  order  are  invariably 
well  taken  because  he  is  a  master  of  parliamentary 
law." 

He  had  at  last  fairly  won  his  way  to  the  real 
leadership  of  his  party  in  the  House,  a  leadership 
which  he  retained  without  a  rival  so  long  as  he  re 
mained  a  member. 


CHAPTER  X 

NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER 

THE  presidential  election  of  1884  was  most  bitterly 
contested.  The  legitimate  political  issues  furnished 
sufficient  material  for  excitement,  but  there  was  a 
degree  of  personal  bitterness  toward  the  candidates 
which  was,  at  the  time,  unexampled,  and  which  hap 
pily  has  not  since  been  witnessed.  The  rhetorical  trick 
of  understatement  had  not  come  into  vogue,  and 
epithets  of  the  most  vituperative  character  were 
freely  used.1  The  most  important  factor  in  the  result 
in  New  York,  which  was  the  decisive  state,  was  the 
"Stalwart"  and  "Half-breed"  division.  The  struggle 
over  the  patronage  during  Garfield's  brief  incum 
bency  had  been  followed  by  the  resignation  of  Conk- 
ling  and  Platt,  and  the  party  was  rent  asunder  in  that 
state.  Elaine,  because  of  his  relations  to  the  Garfield 
administration  and  the  personal  hostility  between  him 
and  Conkling,  was  the  last  man  upon  whom  the  two 
factions  could  be  expected  to  unite.  The  defection  in 
Conkling's  own  county  was  much  more  than  sufficient 
to  explain  Elaine's  defeat,  and  the  influence  of  the 
former  throughout  the  state,  in  which  he  had  long  been 
the  most  conspicuous  figure  in  his  party,  doubtless 

1  For  an  example  see  Mr.  George  Fred  Williams's  speech  on 
Elaine  at  a  Mugwump  rally  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston. 


130  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

counted  for  many  thousand  votes.  New  York  was  an 
extremely  doubtful  state  at  the  best.  That  a  change 
of  a  few  hundred  votes  out  of  a  million  and  a  half 
should  have  been  sufficient  to  give  Blaine  the  state 
seems  incredible.  But  Cleveland,  who  was  at  the  time 
Governor  of  the  state  and  its  favorite  son,  carried  it  by 
only  eleven  hundred  plurality.  The  Mugwump  con 
tingent  in  that  state  apparently  proved  less  formidable 
in  numbers  than  in  the  character  of  its  members  and 
possibly  also  in  their  animosity.  If  that  movement 
had  never  existed,  the  other  known  elements  of  dis 
turbance  would  have  been  sufficient  easily  to  account 
for  the  result  in  New  York. 

Reed  had  a  far  less  difficult  campaign  in  1884  than 
it  had  ever  been  his  fortune  to  have.  Blaine  was  very 
strong  in  his  own  state,  and  the  other  candidates  of  his 
party  felt  the  influence  of  his  popularity.  Reed  was 
elected  by  a  substantial  majority,  which,  indeed,  he 
received  at  every  subsequent  election.  He  cordially 
supported  Blaine,  and  declared  that  at  no  time  in  the 
history  of  the  country  had  there  ever  been  so  free  and 
untrammeled  a  representation  of  the  people  as  in  the 
convention  which  nominated  him.  The  influence  of 
the  political  dictators,  by  which  Reed  probably 
meant  what  in  modern  parlance  is  called  the  political 
boss,  was  not  seen  in  its  action. 

There  was  another  "charge"  against  Reed  which 
appeared  in  this  campaign.  He  was  accused  of 
"neglecting  the  interests  of  his  district."  The  follow 
ing  quotation  from  a  letter  from  one  of  the  most 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  131 

prominent  Democrats  in  Congress  is  pertinent  on  this 

point. 

September  9,  1884. 
MY  DEAR  REED:  — 

I  returned  home  yesterday,  regretting  to  find  that  the 
work  of  political  defamation  proceeds  now,  as  of  old.  I 
regret  also  that  I  did  not  arrive  in  time  to  relieve  you  from 
what  I  believe  to  be  the  unjust  charge  of  having  neglected 
the  interests  of  your  district.  Certainly  I  have  never  known 
a  representative  more  diligent  in  looking  out  for  what  he 
believes  to  be  the  interests  of  his  constituents,  than  you  have 
always  been.  .  .  . 

I  am  glad  that  you  have  been  reflected.  ...  I  have  always 
admired  your  capacity  and  fearlessness;  and  if  my  political 
adversaries  are  to  be  found  in  the  House  at  all,  I  know  of 
no  one  whose  presence  is  more  acceptable  than  yours.  You 
always  give  and  take  the  blows  which  are  incident  to  free 
political  life  with  courage  and  calmness.  But  you  never 
allow  political  differences  to  interfere  with  your  personal 
friendships;  hence  I  am  proud  to  class  you  among  my 
friends,  and  trust  that  you  will  permit  me  to  subscribe  my 
self  now,  as  heretofore, 

Very  truly  your  friend, 

ABRAM  S.  HEWITT. 

On  July  30,  1885,  Reed  delivered  a  notable  address 
at  Colby  University,  Waterville,  Maine.  In  it  he  re 
pudiated  the  notion  that  kings  and  leaders,  and  not 
the  people,  made  history  even  in  despotic  times.  The 
following  passages  will  serve  to  show  its  argument  and 
its  quality. 

To  history  of  that  kind  democracy  was  but  of  yesterday, 
and  in  that  history  the  people  took  no  part  except  as  they 
were  forced  by  the  brave  men  or  cajoled  by  the  knaves.  To 
such  history,  that  interesting  figure,  that  much-married, 
much-widowed  and  altogether  bereaved  man,  Henry  VIII, 


132  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

was  the  founder  of  our  holy  religion,  Elizabeth  its  preserver 
and  savior,  Napoleon  the  conqueror  of  Europe,  and  Alex 
ander  of  the  world.  But  democracy  is  not  of  yesterday.  It 
has  equal  date  with  the  race  of  man.  There  has  never  been  a 
moment  since  time  began  in  which  every  human  being  did 
not  count  for  what  he  was  worth  in  all  that  was  achieved  by 
his  nation  an  J  his  race.  .  .  . 

Out  of  the  great  mass  of  each  nation  has  come  all  national 
progress.  It  is  not  the  leaders  and  foremost  men  who  make 
a  nation;  it  is  the  nation  which  makes  the  leaders.  The  old 
story  which  adorned  the  Greek  Reader  of  my  day,  or  some 
equally  venerated  volume,  about  the  army  of  stags  with  a 
lion  for  a  leader  and  the  army  of  lions  with  a  stag  for  a 
leader,  was  but  a  silly  old  story  after  all;  for  in  the  first  case 
the  lion  would  have  leaped  forward  and  the  stags  would 
have  run  away,  which  would  have  been  bad,  even  for  the 
lion;  and  in  the  other  case  the  lions  would  have  made  a  light 
breakfast  off  the  stag,  and  then  acted  the  way  lions  act.  .  .  . 

If  human  progress  had  been  more  a  matter  of  leadership, 
we  should  be  in  Utopia  to-day.  .  .  . 

The  pathway  of  time  is  strewn  with  the  failure  of  lead 
ers.  .  .  . 

Queen  Victoria  has  three  hundred  millions  of  subjects; 
Elizabeth  had  but  five.  Where  is  the  unbroken  line  of  great 
leaders  under  which  this  marvelous  growth  has  flourished? 
You  will  search  for  them  in  vain.  You  cannot  find  them 
among  the  kings.  From  Elizabeth  to  Victoria  only  one  name 
shines  out;  and  how  much  the  name  of  William  of  Orange 
owes  to  the  genius  of  Macaulay,  our  generation,  yet  under 
the  spell  of  that  brilliant  writer,  will  never  know.  You  will 
not  find  the  great  leaders  among  the  chief  advisers  of  the 
Crown.  We  do  not  start  at  the  recognition  of  a  hero  in  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  bribe  in  hand,  or  in  the  Pelhams,  or  in  the 
Earl  of  Bute,  or  in  George  Grenville,  or  in  the  respectable 
Marquis  of  Rockingham,  or  even  in  the  great  William  Pitt, 
who  died  heartbroken  because  all  his  plans  seemed  to  fail.  All 
that  made  him  great  was  his  steadfast  representation  of  the 
indomitable  spirit  of  the  British  people  for  whom  there  was 
no  failure.  But  there  stands  out  from  the  rest  the  great 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  133 

figure  of  Cromwell!  Was  he  not  a  great  man  and  a  great 
leader?  Most  assuredly  I  am  not  saying  that  there  are  not 
great  men  and  great  leaders.  That  would  be  senseless.  But 
it  is  far  more  senseless  to  say  with  Carlyle  that  without 
Cromwell  the  Puritan  Revolt  would  never  have  been  an 
epoch  in  the  world's  history.  The  Puritan  Revolt  was  an 
uprising  of  a  whole  nation.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  full  of 
unconscious  proofs  to  the  contrary  is  Carlyle's  book,  written 
to  show  that  Cromwell  alone  made  that  epoch  in  history. 
Everywhere  you  can  see  the  rising  tide  long  before  Cromwell 
was  surged  to  the  top  of  the  wave.  .  .  . 

"Miscellaneous  Persons  and  Shopmen  as  we  should  now 
call  them,"  says  Carlyle,  with  his  emphasis  of  capital  letters, 
"rolled  about  all  day  bellowing  to  every  lord  and  judge, 
'Justice  on  Strafford."'  Their  clamor  sealed  his  doom.  In 
the  real  history  of  the  world  the  "Miscellaneous  Person  and 
Shopman  "  have  played  many  a  great  part  of  which  some  one 
great  man  has  had  the  glory.  If  great  men,  able  men,  rule 
the  world,  why  was  not  Wentworth  successful?  He  was  the 
one  supremely  able  man  the  King  had.  On  his  side  were 
constable  and  king,  nobility  and  army.  Why  fell  his  head 
into  the  basket?  In  truth,  in  those  old  fierce  days  when  life 
was  the  stake  of  politics,  if  the  great  man,  however  "su 
premely  able,"  met  a  great  popular  wave,  he  had  to  dive 
under  or  be  drowned.  .  .  . 

The  men  who  are  on  the  top  of  these  great  waves  get  mis 
taken  in  the  popular  mind  for  the  wave  itself.  .  .  . 

Every  criticism  against  Abraham  Lincoln  is  dying  out. 
Every  fault  of  his  life  is  dropping  away,  is  passing  out  of 
sight.  The  century  after  his  death  will  find  him  trans 
figured  in  the  hearts  of  all  mankind.  .  .  .  But  to  say  that 
without  him  we  could  not  have  worked  out  the  problem 
would  be  to  do,  not  justice  to  him,  but  injustice  to  all  others. 
Not  to  one  great  man,  but  to  the  many  belongs  our  victory. 
Not  at  Springfield,  but  on  the  broad  plain  of  Arlington 
Heights,  stands  the  monument  of  our  shining  achievement, 
not  towering  high  to  heaven,  but  spreading  lowly  over  many 
an  acre  rich  with  the  memory  of  the  buried  dead;  and  not 
there  alone,  nor  on  the  quiet  hillside  where  every  year  the 


134  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

living  assemble  to  do  honor  to  the  dead,  but  everywhere  in 
hamlet  and  in  city,  in  the  field  and  in  the  mart  —  wherever 
during  the  great  struggle  there  was  a  steadfast  and  patriotic 
soul. 

But  it  is  easy  to  see  in  lands  and  times  like  our  own  how 
the  people  govern,  for  all  our  institutions  are  moulded  to 
make  visible  their  wishes.  The  people,  however,  had  their 
way  even  in  despotic  times.  Not  so  swiftly  as  now,  but  as 
surely.  .  .  .  For  three  quarters  of  a  century  the  French 
nobility  and  clergy,  entrenched  behind  existing  institutions, 
behind  the  use  and  wont  of  mankind,  fighting  against  an 
ignorant  and  impoverished  people,  thought  they  were  suc 
cessfully  keeping  down  the  rising  flow  of  knowledge  and 
liberty.  But  when  the  flood  burst,  not  a  vestige  of  old 
nobility,  of  Church  or  State,  encumbered  the  earth.  The 
ruin  was  as  wide  as  the  dam  had  been  stout.  A  new  Church 
and  State  uprose  in  time,  but  it  was  the  Church  and  State  of 
a  freer,  a  more  civilized,  a  loftier  people.  And  so  in  every 
country,  whether  liberty  broadens  down,  as  in  England,  from 
precedent  to  precedent,  or  as  in  France,  from  revolution  to 
revolution,  the  steady  progress  of  civilization  comes  from 
the  people  and  by  the  people  —  is  forever  of  them.  You 
cannot  keep  the  people  out  of  government  and  progress.  If 
their  intelligence  does  not  rule,  their  ignorance  will.  .  .  . 

There  are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  knowledge  and  wis 
dom,  culture  and  scholarship,  and  even  brute  force  and 
wealth  and  cunning,  get  themselves  counted.  Heads  are 
counted  and  brains  also.  Ignorance  gets  counted  as  well  as 
intelligence,  and  is  quite  apt  to  poll  the  larger  vote. 

There  is,  and  always  has  been,  one  tremendous  ruler  of 
the  human  race  —  a  ruler  so  great  that  no  other  despotism 
has  been  possible,  and  that  ruler  is  that  combination  of  the 
opinions  of  all,  that  leveling  up  of  universal  sense  which  is 
called  Public  Sentiment.  That  is  the  ever-present  regulator 
and  police  of  humanity.  .  .  . 

But  it  behooves  a  man  to  take  heed  before  he  begins  to 
run  counter  to  it,  whether  he  longs  to  proclaim  a  great  prin 
ciple  which  will  free  a  race,  or  merely  wants  to  wear  his  hair 
long  down  his  back.  .  .  .  The  race  must  go  on  together,  and 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  135 

as  a  whole.  .  .  .  Let  a  man  proclaim  a  new  principle  in  sci 
ence  or  make  an  invention  which  supersedes  the  existing  one, 
and  he  must  fight.  Public  sentiment  will  surely  be  on  the 
other  side.  It  may  try  to  kill  him  or  it  may  only  shrug  its 
shoulders.  The  abolitionists  in  Old  England  and  in  New 
England  know  what  this  means,  and  so  did  John  Wesley 
and  the  early  Methodists,  and  almost  all  great  inventors. 
The  statue  of  Jacquard,  whose  invention  added  a  thousand 
fold  to  the  comfort  and  culture  of  the  world,  stands  to-day 
on  the  very  spot  where  his  loom  was  burned  under  the  orders 
of  the  council  of  the  wise  men  of  the  trade  of  Lyons.  In 
earlier  ages  we  used  to  burn  the  man  too. 

The  discovery  of  the  solar  system  by  Copernicus  was  a 
marvel  of  wisdom.  What  a  mighty  comprehensive  mind 
must  have  filled  that  frail  body!  But  there  is  one  circum 
stance  which  shows  that  he  had  the  wisdom  of  this  world 
as  well  as  of  all  others.  He  did  not  publish  his  book  until  he 
was  on  his  death-bed.  He  knew  how  dangerous  it  is  to  be 
right  when  the  rest  of  the  world  is  wrong.  .  .  .  The  rising 
sunbeams  may  strike  into  beauty  the  hilltops  first,  but  their 
glancing  rays  are  barren  and  unfructifying  until  they  pour 
vertical  into  the  valleys.  Wisdom  to  be  of  any  use  must  be 
within  easy  reach  of  the  world. 

The  reason  why  the  race  of  man  moves  slowly  is  because 
it  must  move  all  together.  ...  It  is  not  the  knowledge  of  the 
great  men,  the  skill  of  the  great  orators,  the  philosophy  of 
the  great  sages  that  make  civilization.  There  are  no  orators 
to-day  as  persuasive  as  Cicero,  no  philosophers  or  wise  men 
greater  than  Aristotle  or  Plato.  Yet  civilization  was  not  of 
their  day,  but  of  ours.  The  sunlight  of  knowledge  for  us 
has  got  beyond  the  hilltops.  The  valleys  of  to-day  are  not  as 
beautiful  as  were  the  hills  of  yore,  but  they  teem  with  life 
and  health  and  verdure.  .  .  . 

Our  progress  is  slow  because  we  have  to  grope  in  the  dark. 
We  all  live  on  hope.  .  .  .  What  if  the  progress  be  slow?  The 
race  has  all  time  before  it.  Each  problem  gets  grappled  with 
as  it  comes  up. 

Look  at  the  battle  between  capital  and  labor.  Each  must 
have  the  other,  and  yet  the  struggle  seems  perpetual.  You 


136  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

invent  machines  and  get  rid  of  three  fourths  of  your  labor, 
and  lo!  the  insatiable  human  race  demands  more,  and  more, 
and  more  of  the  product  of  your  machine,  and  your  labor 
must  come  back.  If  labor  should  destroy  capital,  it  would 
destroy  itself.  If  capital  cheats  labor,  it  cheats  itself;  .  .  . 
Why,  then,  is  it  that  there  is  not  a  settlement  once  for  all? 
Simply  because  men  do  not  know  what  the  fair  share  is. 
It  will  not  do  to  give  capital  too  little,  otherwise  men  will 
neither  accumulate  nor  risk  capital.  It  will  not  do  to  give 
labor  too  little,  or  men  will  not  work.  .  .  .  Capital  hates  to 
lose  its  interest,  and  men  hate  to  starve.  Then  again,  every 
business  depends  on  its  neighbor,  and  all  depend  on  that 
inevitable  fluctuation  between  good  times  and  bad  times 
which  no  human  wisdom  will  probably  ever  be  able  to  avert. 
It  is  evidently  a  problem  which  takes  in  the  whole  world, 
and  can  only  be  settled  on  the  principles  of  democracy.  .  .  . 
It  will  get  settled  by  the  intelligence  which  all  acquire  in  the 
fight.  The  locations  of  a  great  many  rocks  are  found  by 
running  against  them.  .  .  . 

This  history  of  the  progress  of  all  by  all  and  through  all 
lifts  us  to  the  highest  Pisgah  of  hope  and  certainty.  In  its 
light  the  promised  land  of  the  future  stands  richer  than  the 
Canaan  of  the  wearied  Hebrews,  richer  than  the  fruitage  of 
the  vine  the  spies  brought  back,  richer  than  the  flowing 
of  milk  and  honey;  for  we  can  see  by  the  light  which  the 
future  in  all  ages  has  thrown  back  upon  the  great  souls  of  the 
past  a  world  where  the  selfishness  of  each  has  been  enlight 
ened  into  selfishness  for  all;  where  war  and  famine  and 
pestilence  shall  never  come;  where  under  the  guardianship 
of  eternal  justice  learned  through  long  ages  of  struggle,  and 
mistake,  and  become  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  world, 
each  human  being  shall  do  all  the  work  there  is  for  him  to  do, 
and  shall  reap,  without  tribute  to  any  other,  the  last  results 
of  his  toil. 

Apparently  in  December,  1886,  Reed  addressed  the 
New  England  Society  of  New  York  on  Forefathers' 
Day,  and  responded  for  the  Congress  of  the  United 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  137 

States.  His  speech  was  a  humorous  one.  He  declared 
that  he  knew  a  great  deal  about  the  House,  but  that 
much  of  what  he  knew  was  strictly  confidential.  He 
said  that  Congress  was  composed  of  two  Houses,  "a 
large  one  and  a  little  one.  I  belong  to  the  large  one." 
He  referred  to  the  hall  of  the  House  as  the  most  ab 
surd  place  in  which  men  ever  took  common  counsel 
over  their  affairs  "since  our  ancestors  transacted 
business  on  horseback  in  a  ten-acre  lot." 

Reed  was  nominated  by  his  party  in  1886,  and  in 
each  subsequent  campaign,  by  acclamation.  In  his 
speech  accepting  the  nomination  in  1886,  he  denounced 
the  Democratic  administration  for  its  attitude  on 
civil-service  reform.  He  declared  that  it  was  mort 
gaged,  that  the  first  mortgage  was  to  the  Mugwumps, 
and  was  ostensibly  in  favor  of  civil-service  reform, 
but  it  amounted  to  this,  that  when  the  wrong  kind 
of  Democrat  wanted  office,  reform  kept  him  out,  but 
when  another  came,  with  friends  at  court,  he  was 
nominated. 

Out  of  fifty-four  appointments  Commissioner  Black  got 
fifty-two  Democrats.  All  others  two.  Fifty-two  out  of  a 
possible  fifty-four!  Why,  the  prize  target  at  Creedmore 
can  show  no  such  shooting!  Nevertheless  those  two  Demo 
crats,  Randall  and  Holman,  proposed  to  amend  the  law  and 
take  in  the  other  two.  The  two  lost  sheep! 

He  declared  that  before  Cleveland's  term  was  out 
there  would  not  be  a  Republican  in  office,  and  the 
places  would  be  filled,  "not  by  you,  my  Democratic 
brother  who  rushed  to  Washington  early,  in  the  full 


138  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

flush  of  exuberant  hope,  but  by  some  Democratic 
brother  who  has  not  defiled  himself  by  work  and  who 
has  graduated  from  high  school." 

It  was  very  common  in  those  days  for  people  to  ride 
over  the  railroads  on  free  passes  and  to  call  on  their 
political  friends  to  secure  what  were  called  "favors" 
from  the  roads.  In  reply  to  a  request  of  that  sort  to 
Reed  made  by  some  one  evidently  very  friendly  to  him 
Reed  wrote  as  follows:  — 

...  I  should  have  another  objection  to  writing  them  or 
referring  your  request  to  them.  It  has  so  happened  that  I 
took  their  view  of  a  law  question  before  a  committee  of 
which  I  was  chairman,  last  Congress.  I  presume  that  in  the 
course  of  public  duty  I  shall  feel  myself  called  on  to  take  the 
same  view  in  another  attack  upon  their  rights  this  Congress. 
I  should  not  desire  therefore  to  have  anything  in  the  nature  of 
a  favor  from  them.  It  might  be  misinterpreted  by  them  and 
certainly  would  be  by  others.  I  need  not  say  to  you,  who 
have  so  much  experience  in  public  affairs,  that  I  do  not 
expect,  by  acting  thus  strictly,  to  escape  public  slander.  I 
only  expect  not  to  deserve  it. 

Reed's  prominence  in  the  House  again  made  him  a 
conspicuous  candidate  for  the  nomination  by  his  party 
for  the  Speakership  when  the  Forty-ninth  Congress 
assembled  at  its  December  session  in  1885.  One  of 
the  leading  newspapers,  commenting  on  the  rivalry 
between  Reed,  Hiscock,  and  Keifer,  had  said  that  the 
three  strove  for  the  recognition  of  their  party  until 
finally  Reed  gained  the  ascendancy  through  his  apt 
ness  in  debate.  Keifer,  however,  had  not  been  re- 
elected,  and  the  contest  was  continued  between  Reed 
and  Hiscock.  Reed  received  support  from  many  parts 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  139 

of  the  country.  Hiscock  began  with  the  support  of  his 
own  state,  with  its  very  large  delegation,  and  the 
chances  appeared  to  favor  him  during  the  preliminary 
contest.  It  was  believed  that  the  outcome  would  prove 
extremely  close.  But  Reed  received  in  the  caucus  of 
the  Republicans  63  votes  against  42  for  Hiscock. 
His  large  majority  was  unexpected. 

The  speech  nominating  Reed  was  made  by  McKin- 
ley  of  Ohio,  according  to  the  programme  which  Reed's 
supporters  had  previously  arranged.  Hiscock  was 
named  by  Mr.  William  Walter  Phelps  of  New  Jersey, 
somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  his  supporters,  because 
it  had  been  arranged  that  he  should  be  nominated  by 
one  of  his  colleagues  from  New  York.  The  New  York 
"Times"  declared  that  this  nominating  speech  aston 
ished  the  friends  of  Hiscock.  His  nomination  was,  in 
brief,  urged  upon  the  ground  that  it  would  put  him  in 
line  for  election  to  the  Speakership  in  the  subsequent 
Congress,  which  Mr.  Phelps  predicted  would  be 
Republican  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  This 
had  the  effect  of  arousing  the  caution  of  every  man 
present  in  the  caucus  who  had  aspirations  of  his  own 
concerning  the  next  Congress.  John  D.  Long,  former 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  much  in  favor  with 
the  Southern  members,  but  in  the  absence  of  any  defi 
nite  candidacy  on  his  part  they  finally  voted  for  Reed. 

Reed's  characteristics  as  a  debater  doubtless  both 
contributed  to  his  success  and  lost  him  votes.  He  was 
nothing  of  a  compromiser.  As  a  journalist  of  that  day 
said  of  him,  "He  never  makes  concessions  but  wins 


140  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

or  loses  on  the  knockout  principle."  He  was  at  that 
time  more  direct  and  hard-hitting  than  he  subse 
quently  came  to  be.  The  fighting  in  the  House  of  that 
day  was  more  of  the  short-sword  variety.  Although 
Reed  was  as  successful  at  that  style  of  warfare  as  any 
man  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  he  speedily  out 
grew  it.  The  majority  of  his  party  selected  him  be 
cause  he  had  proved  himself  to  be  its  most  masterful 
debater,  absolutely  fearless,  and  a  Republican  without 
qualification. 

The  nomination  as  its  candidate  for  Speaker  made 
Reed  titular  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House,  and  from 
that  time  until  he  retired  from  Congress  nearly  fifteen 
years  later  he  was  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  that 
position  whether  it  was  in  a  minority  or  a  majority. 
He  received  in  the  House  138  votes  against  178  for 
Mr.  Carlisle.  In  the  appointment  of  committees  his 
name  for  the  first  time  during  his  service  appeared  in 
the  membership  of  Ways  and  Means. 

Reed's  election  as  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the 
House  was  well  received  throughout  the  country,  and 
some  of  the  newspaper  writers  proceeded  to  nominate 
him  for  the  presidency.  Long  and  Hiscock  were  men 
tioned  for  the  same  office  by  one  of  the  correspondents. 

Reed,  in  an  interview,  gave  a  humorous  account  of 
how  he  had  eliminated  his  two  rivals,  and  put  forth 
a  platform  which  stands  to-day  as  a  very  good  satire 
on  the  platform  of  the  candidate  who  strives  to  be  all 
things  to  all  men.  As  soon  as  they  saw  the  announce 
ment  that  they  were  candidates,  Reed  said:  — 


NOMINATION  FOR  SPEAKER  141 

Long  and  I  assembled  ourselves  together,  held  a  caucus, 
and  agreed  that  the  announcement  so  far  as  we  are  concerned 
was  both  timely  and  judicious,  but  we  decided  by  a  unani 
mous  vote  that  Hiscock  was  not  available,  for  reasons  that 
must  suggest  themselves  to  every  thoughtful  and  patriotic 
man.  This  action  having  narrowed  the  contest  down  to 
Long  and  myself,  I  suggested,  with  the  kindest  and  most  dis 
interested  motive,  that  for  the  sake  of  harmony  he  ought  to 
withdraw.  He  demurred  to  the  proposition,  and  did  not 
appear  to  take  much  interest  in  it,  until  I  offered  to  make  it 
an  object  to  him  and  volunteered  to  pay  him  five  dollars  in 
lawful  money  if  he  would  agree  to  retire  in  my  favor  and 
make  a  speech  nominating  me  in  the  presidential  convention. 
He  replied  that  he  was  not  a  five-dollar  man;  whereupon 
I  raised  him  to  eight.  If  there  is  anything  I  despise  it  is 
avarice.  I'm  not  a  man  to  let  a  few  dollars  stand  in  the  way 
of  harmony,  so  when  he  refused  my  second  proposition,  I 
asked  him  how  much  he  would  take.  He  replied  that  he 
would  not  withdraw  from  the  canvass,  and  make  the  speech 
for  less  than  fifteen  dollars,  and  was  willing  to  let  me  write 
it  or  submit  it  for  my  approval.  This  was  pretty  steep  as 
Long  has  n't  the  slightest  chance  of  getting  the  nomination 
and  is  n't  much  of  a  speaker,  but  I  came  to  his  terms  and 
offered  to  pay  five  dollars  down,  and  the  balance  the  day 
after  I  received  the  nomination.  .  .  . 

I  'm  running  for  the  presidency  upon  a  broad  and  compre 
hensive  platform,  and  if  I  don't  get  the  nomination  it  won't 
be  because  I  'm  not  willing  to  give  satisfaction  to  people  of 
all  colors,  races,  religions  and  political  views.  I  believe  in 
giving  every  man  equal  rights  and  a  fair  show.  I  believe 
that  every  man,  woman  and  child  should  receive  a  pension 
who  is  entitled  to  it;  that  every  just  claim  upon  the  Gov 
ernment  should  be  promptly  and  fully  paid  with  interest  to 
date;  that  sectional  strife  should  be  smothered  in  fraternal 
love,  and  that  the  dead  issues  of  the  war  should  be  decently 
buried  at  government  expense.  I  am  in  favor  of  applying 
the  principles  of  civil  service  reform  to  all  the  offices  of  the 
government,  so  as  to  give  entire  satisfaction  to  those  who 
are  in  as  well  as  those  who  are  out;  and  that  all  legislation 


142  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

intended  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  country  should  be 
promptly  enacted  by  Congress.  On  the  labor  question  .  .  . 
I  urge  upon  Congress  the  passage  of  a  bill  that  will  forever 
settle  and  set  at  rest  all  controversies  between  the  employer 
and  the  employed.  I  believe  that  the  surplus  in  the  Treasury 
should  remain  unimpaired  so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the 
financial  welfare  of  the  country,  and  that  Congress  should 
take  such  action  in  reference  to  the  finances  as  will  bring 
the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number;  and  I  further 
desire  to  say  [that]  if  I  have  omitted  to  declare  my  position 
on  any  interest  representing  a  considerable  number  of  votes, 
it  shall  be  my  earnest  endeavor  to  amend  or  enlarge  my  plat 
form  accordingly.  The  motto  on  my  escutcheon  is,  "I  strive 
to  please,"  and  my  aim  is  to  merit  the  approbation  and  secure 
the  support  of  Republicans,  Democrats  and  Mugwumps. 
I  desire  to  be  considered  a  purely  non-partisan  candidate, 
and  would  prefer  that  my  nomination  and  election  should 
be  unanimous. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOCIAL  LIFE — DIVERSIONS 

IN  the  early  part  of  Reed's  service  in  Washington  he 
lived  with  his  family  in  a  boarding-house  on  Twelfth 
Street,  in  which  apparently  General  Logan  and  Mrs. 
Logan  also  lived  and  where  the  Logans  and  Reeds  be 
came  very  warm  friends.  He  afterwards  took  up  his 
residence  at  the  Hamilton  Hotel,  which  was  much  in 
vogue  with  the  New  England  members.  Among  the 
other  guests  at  the  Hamilton  were  his  colleagues  of 
the  Maine  delegation  in  the  House,  Senator  Frye  from 
the  same  state,  and  Governor  Long,  a  member  from 
Massachusetts.  Long  and  his  family  sat  at  the  same 
table  with  Reed  and  his  wife  and  daughter,  an  ar 
rangement  that  continued  for  several  years.  With  a 
scholar  and  wit  like  Long  as  his  constant  companion,  it 
may  well  be  doubted  whether  such  lively  conversation 
could  have  been  found  at  any  other  table  in  Washington. 
They  by  no  means  confined  their  attention  to  them 
selves  but  they  conspired  together  and  carried  conster- 
n  ation  to  the  neighboring  tables .  At  a  near-by  table  sat 
Governor  Dingley  of  Maine  and  a  member  from  Cali 
fornia.  Dingley  was  a  strict  total  abstainer.  The  Cali 
fornia  member  used  patriotically  to  drink  a  bottle  of 
California  wine  every  night  with  his  dinner.  The  per 
petual  joke  with  Reed  and  Long,  put  forth  with  a  great 


144  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

variety  of  attack,  was  pretending  to  believe  for  three 
or  four  years  that  the  bottle  of  wine  was  at  Dingley's 
place  instead  of  at  the  California  member's.  For  a 
time  this  annoyed  Dingley  very  much,  and  he  at 
tempted  to  explain;  but  explanations  were  of  no  avail 
against  such  a  combination  as  Reed  and  Long  and 
at  last  he  resigned  himself  to  the  inevitable  joke.  At 
another  time  when  Dingley's  abstemious  habits  were 
referred  to,  Reed  said:  "If  you  want  the  Governor 
to  take  it  just  freeze  it,  the  law  is  against  taking  it  as 
a  beverage." 

After  Reed  became  Speaker  he  removed  to  the 
Shoreham  Hotel,  where  he  resided  during  the  remain 
ing  period  of  his  service. 

He  delighted  in  the  society  of  younger  men,  promi 
nent  among  whom  were  Robert  J.  Cousins,  a  brilliant 
member  from  Iowa,  and  a  jolly  coterie  of  members 
from  New  York,  of  whom  James  S.  Sherman,  after 
wards  Vice-President,  was  the  leader.  Reed  was 
much  in  the  company  of  these  New  Yorkers  and 
before  they  separated,  partly  as  a  result  of  adverse 
elections,  they  presented  him  with  a  handsome  loving- 
cup.  He  was  much  in  demand  on  social  occasions 
and  he  gave  up  to  them  what  time  he  could  spare 
from  his  work. 

He  was  not  greatly  addicted  to  cards  although  he 
occasionally  played;  and  on  going  out  for  an  evening's 
game  he  sometimes  delighted  to  affect  a  ruse  to  explain 
his  absence.  On  leaving  home  one  evening  he  said  to 
Mrs.  Reed:  "I  am  going  to  call  on  the  Italian  Ambas- 


SOCIAL  LIFE  — DIVERSIONS  145 

sador,  Giuseppe  Canoni."  A  few  evenings  later  he 
repeated  the  same  thing  to  Mrs.  Reed.  "But,"  she 
replied,  "I  thought  the  Italian  Ambassador's  name 

was  Count ."  "No,"  said  Reed,  "it  is  Giuseppe 

Canoni,  vulgarly  known  as  Joe  Cannon." 

There  is  a  club  in  Portland  known  as  the  Cumber 
land  Club  which  has  its  home  in  an  ample  and  attrac 
tive  old  house.  It  bears  upon  its  rolls  the  names  of 
many  of  the  foremost  men  of  Portland  and  other  places 
in  Maine.  Reed  was  one  of  its  original  members. 
Many  of  them  were  boys  with  him  when  they  belonged 
to  the  "warlike  tribes"  on  Munjoy  Hill,  or  were  in 
cluded  in  the  other  hostile  bands  of  that  early  time. 
He  said  that  it  was  "a  peaceful  little  club  in  a  small 
city,  and  all  its  members  know  each  other  and  call 
each  other  by  their  first  names.  This  is  no  more  than 
natural  for  they  were  most  of  them  schoolboys  to 
gether.  .  .  .  Nobody  maintained  any  dignity  for  every 
body  knew  everybody's  weak  points,  and  there  was 
never  a  raw  spot  unvisited.  If  a  man  had  a  fad  it  was 
unmercifully  exposed  to  the  air,  and  if  he  was  n't  cured 
he  suffered."  There  was  probably  no  other  place  where 
he  was  more  exuberant  or  more  thoroughly  enjoyed 
himself  than  at  the  club,  surrounded  by  those  who, 
like  himself  well  along  in  years,  were  kept  young  with 
him  by  the  common  memories  of  their  youth.  When  in 
Portland  he  passed  much  time  there  and  many  are 
the  amusing  anecdotes  that  are  told  about  him. 

He  used  sometimes  to  write  a  short  paper  to  be  read 
to  the  members.  One  of  them  was  upon  the  club  it- 


146  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

self,  from  which  quotation  has  been  made.  Another, 
found  among  his  manuscripts,  and  probably  prepared 
for  the  club,  was  about  "Our  Cat"  Anthony,  the  style 
of  which  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  para 
graphs  :  — 

Anthony  is  the  name  of  our  cat.  He  acquired  this  name  by 
accident.  He  was  originally  called  Cleopatra,  but  it  was  soon 
discovered  that  this  name  was  inappropriate.  It  was  there 
fore  changed  to  Anthony  because  that  seemed  to  conserve  all 
the  associations  possible  to  be  saved.  Anthony  is  not  a  cat 
of  rare  race;  just  a  common  kind  of  a  cat,  but  with  individual 
distinctions  due  to .  himself  and  not  to  his  ancestors.  He  has 
tiger  markings  and  a  tail  which  as  it  moves  in  procession 
down  our  street  is  of  stately  grandeur.  Anthony  is  brave; 
sometimes  offensively  so.  But  he  has  also  discretion.  There 
is  a  big  yellow  cat  in  the  neighborhood.  Whenever  that  big 
yellow  cat  comes  into  view,  Anthony  does  not  stand  upon  the 
order  of  his  going.  He  goes  at  once.  He  climbs  a  tree  and 
looks  down  from  an  upper  branch  as  who  should  say,  "This 
street  is  yours,  my  friend;  take  both  sidewalks.  A  little  place 
like  this  is  good  enough  for  me."  There  is  another  cat  in 
the  neighborhood,  John  Small's  cat,  who  looks  exactly  like 
Anthony.  His  markings  are  the  same,  his  size  and  age  are 
the  same.  .  .  .  Every  day  he  strides  up  the  street,  and  when 
he  finds  his  enemy  he  rushes  at  him  without  a  second's  hesi 
tation.  What  a  meeting  it  is !  They  blend.  It  is  neither  John 
Small's  cat  nor  my  cat.  It  is  a  new  creature.  They  meet  in 
joint  convention,  with  a  quorum  of  both  bodies  present. 
And  such  an  attention  to  business.  How  the  fur  does  fly! 
The  marks  that  John  Small's  cat  bears  after  one  of  those 
meetings  can  never  be  described.  He  becomes  protoplasm 
and  finally  grows  back  into  a  cat.  .  .  . 

Anthony's  nature  came  out  finely  one  day  as  the  result 
of  a  little  deception.  We  brought  in  a  stuffed  cat  made  of 
cotton,  but  which  looked  so  like  a  cat  that  it  deceived  the 
very  elect.  Anthony,  intent  upon  his  dinner,  did  not  see  the 
stuffed  cat  at  once,  but  by  and  by  he  caught  sight  of  it.  What 


SOCIAL  LIFE  — DIVERSIONS  147 

a  little  tiger  he  changed  to  in  a  second!  His  back  did  n't 
arch:  it  hollowed,  and  he  slowly  edged  up  to  the  stuffed  cat, 
waiting  for  an  opening.  To  his  amazement  the  stuffed  cat  sat 
bolt  upright,  fixing  him  with  a  glittering  eye.  Then  Anthony 
cautiously  but  viciously  led  out  with  his  left  at  the  eye  of 
the  stuffed  cat.  The  claw  caught  and  the  stuffed  cat  toppled 
toward  Anthony.  Anthony  left  the  apartment.  He  left  it 
suddenly.  You  could  not  see  him  leave,  he  left  so  suddenly. 
Then  everybody  roared.  But  Anthony  was  not  afraid.  He 
was  only  discreet.  He  reformed  behind  the  door  and  crept 
in  again.  This  time  his  smell  told  him  of  the  cheat  and  he 
left  the  house  and  did  not  return  for  a  week.  His  finer  feel 
ings  had  been  hurt  and  he  never  resumed  full  fellowship  with 
the  house  afterwards.  He  had  no  need  to  do  it.  He  was  wel 
come  all  over  the  neighborhood. 

After  moving  several  times  from  one  street  to  an 
other,  Reed  purchased,  about  the  time  of  his  first 
Speakership,  an  attractive  and  spacious  house  at  32 
Deering  Street,  which  he  occupied  during  the  remain 
der  of  his  life  and  which  ever  since  has  been  the  home 
of  his  family.  In  a  cheerful  room  on  the  third  story 
and  in  the  hall  connected  with  it  he  kept  the  greater 
part  of  his  general  library,  which  was  said  to  be  the 
largest  private  library  in  Maine.  It  contained,  exclu 
sive  of  his  law  books  and  those  in  the  French  language, 
about  five  thousand  volumes.  The  books  were  se 
lected  with  excellent  taste.  His  favorite  poets  were 
Tennyson,  Burns,  and  Byron,  and  his  favorite  writers 
of  English  prose,  Thackeray,  Dickens,  Carlyle,  and 
Macaulay.  He  was  also  especially  fond  of  Reade, 
Lever,  Emerson,  Lowell,  and  Stevenson.  He  was  very 
fond  of  "Punch,"  of  which  his  library  contained 
thirty-five  volumes,  beginning  at  1841.  It  was  well 


148  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

supplied  with  books  of  reference  necessary  for  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  his  speeches  and  writings 
bear  ample  evidence  that  these  books  were  for  use 
rather  than  ornament.  It  contained  the  New  Testa 
ment  in  half  a  dozen  languages. 

In  addition  to  his  English  books  he  had  some  five 
hundred  French  volumes,  chiefly  made  up  of  the 
classics  and  the  best  modern  books  in  that  language. 
He  read  French  with  great  facility  and  could  speak  the 
language  fluently  and  with  a  good  accent.  Shortly 
after  he  entered  Congress,  in  order  to  perfect  himself 
in  the  language,  he  kept  a  diary  in  French,  and  the  work 
was  continued  until  it  nearly  filled  four  manuscript 
volumes.  It  was  prefaced  by  the  explanation  that  it 
was  written  "only  for  practice  in  French.  I  cannot 
show  it  to  any  one  to  have  it  corrected,  and  I  have 
not  the  time  to  correct  it  myself."  It  contained  much 
about  his  private  affairs,  frequent  references  to  the 
books  he  was  reading,  and  to  the  business  of  the 
House,  and  occasionally  a  description  of  a  dinner 
party.  It  shows  a  wide  range  of  French  reading,  in 
which  he  indulged  while  traveling,  or  at  home  when 
he  had  leisure. 

The  diary  had  many  interruptions,  for  which  he 
would  upbraid  himself,  as  the  following  entries  will 
show. 

February  25,  1886.  Friday.  I  have  frightfully  neglected 
this  diary.  In  truth,  the  past  week  I  have  been  going  out 
in  society.  I  have  eaten  many  dinners,  and  have  attended 
some  receptions.  I  have  been  going  to  bed  very  late.  On 
account  of  this  I  have  not  had  the  time  to  write  in  the 


SOCIAL  LIFE  — DIVERSIONS  149 

journal,  but  I  am  through  with  it.    The  game  is  not  worth 
the  candle. 

March  11,  1886.  Friday.  I  am  not  at  all  satisfied  with 
myself.  I  have  forgotten  for  four  days  to  write  in  my  diary, 
and  have  forgotten  what  I  have  done. 

The  following  is  one  of  his  accounts  of  a  dinner 
party:— 

February  4,  1886.  This  evening  I  dined  with  Professor 
A.  G.  Bell,  who  invented  the  telephone.  Present  were  Messrs. 
Long,  Charles  Emery  Smith,  Phelps,  Major  Powell,  Dr. 
Billings,  Prof.  Baird,  Senators  Cullom  and  Butler  of  South 
Carolina,  and  several  others;  a  good  dinner.  Mr.  Bell  told 
me  that  he  found  two  deaf  cats,  white  with  blue  eyes.  Such 
cats  are  always  deaf.  He  is  studying  the  customs  of  these 
animals.  These  cats  are  very  peculiar.  When  they  are  left 
to  walk  in  the  garden,  they  promenade  by  moving  from 
time  to  time  their  heads  from  one  side  to  the  other,  using 
their  eyes  instead  of  their  ears.  He  intends  to  breed  a  race 
of  deaf  cats. 

This  is  his  reference  to  the  first  contest  which  he 
made  for  the  Republican  nomination  for  Speaker :  — 

January  16,  1886.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session  I  was 
elected  candidate  of  the  Republican  Party  for  Speaker. 
There  was  a  slight  contest  between  Mr.  Hiscock  and  myself 
for  the  votes  of  our  friends,  but  I  did  not  approach  any  one. 
Finally  I  succeeded  in  a  manner  very  flattering  to  myself. 

The  work  is  full  of  his  references  to  his  French 
readings :  — 

April  18,  1885.  Friday.  ...  I  studied  the  Civil  Code  in 
French,  and  the  last  volume  of  Maine  Reports  which  I  found 
in  my  office.  ...  I  began  to  read  also  at  home  the  "Letters 
of  Madame  de  Sevigne"  and  the  "Memoirs  of  Saint-Simon," 
and  a  history  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  from  the  Catholic 


150  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

point  of  view,  by  the  Abbe  Destombes,  which  I  bought  in 
Brussels  two  years  ago. 

September  14.  Sunday.  I  read  this  morning  in  the  second 
volume  of  the  "French  Revolution"  (Blanc),  and  did  the 
same  thing  after  dinner  and  during  the  evening. 

September  30.  During  my  trip  to  New  York  from  here, 
I  read  "A  Marriage  in  the  World  "  by  Octave  Feuillet,  which 
interested  me.  His  style  is  so  simple,  so  pure,  that  one  can 
read  his  works  easily.  He  does  not  make  long  detours,  he 
does  not  employ  many  adjectives,  he  walks  always  leisurely 
on  a  straight  course.  He  claims  attention  by  gentle  allure 
ments.  I  have  rarely  read  such  books.  I  must  read  his 
masterpiece,  "Monsieur  de  Camors."  After  I  got  home  I 
read  in  the  third  volume  of  Louis  Blanc. 

March  1, 1886.  Monday.  Got  up  at  half -past  eight.  Could 
not  sleep  all  night,  and  took  a  vacation  of  two  hours  and 
a  half.  During  this  vacation  I  read  "Sous  les  Tilleuls." 

March  2,  1886.  Got  up  at  eight  o'clock,  but  passed  a  bad 
night.  Ought  to  have  gone  to  bed  without  reading.  The 
bed  was  not  very  well  made.  I  went  to  the  Capitol  at  half- 
past  ten,  buying,  while  passing  Brentano's,  a  little  copy  of 
"Fables"  of  La  Fontaine.  ...  In  the  House  we  had  a  great 
debate  on  pensions,  following  the  debate  commenced  by  Mr. 
Henderson  of  Iowa.  We  were  completely  overthrown  at  the 
moment  when  Mr.  Butterworth  commenced  a  good  speech 
which  saved  us.  Mr.  Butterworth  was  extremely  fortunate 
in  his  address,  and  very  brilliant.  Mr.  Wilson  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  made  a  very  refined  and  very  eloquent  speech. 
This  evening  I  finished  "Sous  les  Tilleuls."  It  is  a  book 
which  leaves  a  bad  taste  in  the  mouth.  I  have  wasted  my 
time. 

March  3,  1886.  Got  up  at  half -past  eight;  walked  to  the 
Capitol.  We  passed  the  day  in  talking  about  nothing.  Mr. 
Butterworth  ended  his  speech  of  yesterday  almost  painfully. 
Mr.  Norwood  of  Georgia  spoke  with  a  fine  satire  against 
Mr.  Henderson,  whom  he  harried  without  mercy.  Mr.  Breck- 


SOCIAL  LIFE  — DIVERSIONS  151 

inridge  of  Kentucky  seized  a  good  opportunity  to  deliver 
himself  of  a  little  piece  of  rhetoric  which  ended  in  a  very 
eloquent  peroration.  Mr.  Brown  followed  him  in  protecting 
the  reputation  of  Colonel  Dudley,  the  Commissioner  of 
Pensions.  Thus  ended  the  debates  of  the  day.  I  am  in  a 
state  of  extreme  disgust.  Without  doubt  this  effort  will  be 
considered  everywhere  very  fine,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
these  Southern  gentlemen  are  victorious  over  us,  and,  humili 
ating  fact,  rightfully  so.  Why  not  end  these  wrangles  over 
the  Civil  War,  which  is  certainly  past. 

March  7, 1886.  Sunday.  ...  In  the  House  everything  was 
in  order  except  action.  In  a  word  it  was  a  gaseous  day  in 
which  one  could  talk  at  discretion,  or  rather  without  discre 
tion. 

Walking  was  his  favorite  exercise,  and  he  was  accus 
tomed  on  fair  days  to  take  the  long  walk  from  his  resi 
dence  to  the  Capitol  and  return.  At  his  summer  place 
on  Grand  Beach,  Maine,  he  learned  to  ride  a  bicycle 
in  a  way  that  entertained  his  neighbors.  He  had  boxes 
distributed  along  the  beach  which  he  could  use  to  get 
on  the  bicycle  when  he  had,  either  purposely  or  unin 
tentionally,  dismounted. 


CHAPTER  XII 

RULES  —  THE  MILLS  BILL 

REED  signalized  his  assumption  of  the  leadership  of 
the  minority  by  renewing  his  effort  made  in  the  pre 
ceding  Congress  to  change  the  rules  of  the  House,  and 
he  made  a  strong  attack  upon  them.  His  former 
attempts  had  been  defeated,  once  by  filibustering  and 
again  by  a  hostile  Democratic  majority,  which,  how 
ever,  had  been  reduced  on  that  vote  from  its  normal 
strength  of  seventy,  to  eleven.  He  claimed  that  the 
code  of  rules  was  a  systematic  outrage  on  government 
by  a  majority,  and  that  "the  only  way  to  do  business 
inside  the  rules  was  to  suspend  the  rules.  The  object 
of  the  rules  appeared  to  be  to  prevent  the  transaction 
of  business."  Although  one  of  the  cherished  policies  of 
the  slave-power  had  been  to  prevent  Congress  from 
infringing  upon  state  rights,  yet  its  purpose  had  been 
"rather  to  prevent  discussion  than  to  prevent  action. 
They  had  a  majority  which  could  determine  the  action 
to  be  taken,  but  they  could  not  throttle  debate  with 
out  rules."  His  fight  was  again  destined  to  be  without 
result,  but  it  showed  his  sincerity  concerning  the  sub 
ject  on  which  his  efforts  were  ultimately  to  be  rewarded 
with  success. 

Cleveland  in  his  messages  had  taken  strong  ground 
against  the  silver  legislation,  under  which  there  were 


RULES  — THE  MILLS  BILL  153 

coined  great  numbers  of  silver  dollars,  the  value  of 
which  compared  with  gold  was  constantly  dwindling. 
Reed,  although  probably  a  majority  of  his  party  was 
against  him,  strongly  supported  Mr.  Cleveland  in  his 
attitude. 

On  July  6,  1886,  Reed  delivered  the  oration  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Centennial  of  Portland.  It  was  a 
notable  address.  The  reference  it  contained  to  his 
classmate,  which  has  already  been  quoted,  aroused  the 
criticism  of  one  of  the  clergymen  of  Portland  who 
wrote  Reed  a  letter  from  which  the  following  is  taken. 

PORTLAND,  ME.,  July  13,  1886. 

The  enclosed  passage  from  my  Sunday's  discourse  I  was 
about  to  hand  to  a  Portland  paper  for  publication,  but  was 
persuaded  from  doing  so.  ...  In  speaking  of  those  who 
passed  from  earth  amid  the  horrors  of  civil  war  and  of  the 
bright  companion  of  his  youth  the  orator  said,  "Can  it  be 
that  I  shall  never  look  into  those  cheerful  eyes  again?  Can 
it  be  that  neither  the  quaint  jest  of  the  happier  hour  nor  the 
solemn  confidence  of  the  heart  will  ever  again  fall  upon  the 
ear  of  friendship  or  of  love?  It  can  be  no  otherwise.  He  can 
only  live  in  my  memory.  The  dead  however  sweetly  em 
balmed  are  but  the  dead."  —  Interpret  this  language  as 
we  may,  it  is  not  the  sweet  teaching  of  Christianity  but  of 
bitter  and  unlovely  infidelity. 

Reed's  reply  was  in  part  as  follows:  — 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  15  July,  1886. 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  favor  and  must  confess  my  surprise 
at  the  construction  your  remarks  put  upon  the  passage  which 
you  quote.  When  I  wrote  the  passage  I  had  no  intention  to 
express  any  opinion  on  the  subject  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  either  for  or  against,  especially  against,  nor  do  I  think 
I  have.  That  subject  was  not  in  my  thoughts.  I  was  dealing 


154  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

only  with  feelings  which  concern  this  side  of  the  grave.  I 
think  you  would  not  have  made  the  mistake  had  you  fully 
given  me  credit  in  your  mind  for  the  good  taste  which  I  hope 
I  possess,  which  would  always  prevent  me  from  taking  an 
occasion  like  July  6  to  promulgate,  even  if  I  entertained 
them,  any  sentiments  which  would  be  offensive  not  merely 
to  the  majority  of  those  present  but  even  to  a  single  one.  If 
the  public  library  gives  you  access  to  some  words  I  said  of 
another  dead  friend  during  the  session  of  1869,  you  may 
perhaps  find  at  least  the  views  I  then  expressed. 

During  this  Congress  there  was  little  more  than  the 
absolutely  necessary  legislation,  with  a  Democratic 
President  and  House  and  a  Republican  Senate.  The 
inevitable  tariff  was  brought  forward  in  the  House  and 
took  the  form  of  the  Morrison  bill,  from  the  name  of 
the  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means.  But  Randall,  the 
former  Speaker,  who  had  been  deposed  from  leader 
ship,  had  his  revenge  and  was  able  by  a  union  be 
tween  his  followers  and  the  Republicans  to  defeat 
the  measure. 

The  really  serious  attempt  at  tariff  legislation  took 
place  in  the  following  Congress.  It  failed  to  reach  the 
statute  books,  but  it  made  the  issue  clear  for  the  next 
campaign. 

At  the  December  session  of  1887  Carlisle  was  again 
chosen  speaker,  receiving  163  votes  against  148  for 
Reed.  Carlisle  on  taking  the  Chair  went  outside  the 
usual  routine  of  returning  thanks  for  his  election  and 
made  a  speech  in  favor  of  tariff  reduction.  Cleveland's 
message  to  Congress,  which  was  received  during  the 
same  week,  was  confined  to  the  same  subject.  The 
annual  message  had  usually  dealt  with  a  great  variety 


RULES  — THE  MILLS  BILL  155 

of  subjects,  referring  to  the  important  work  of  the  de 
partments  and  presenting  a  general  legislative  pro 
gramme  for  the  session.  The  extraordinary  course  of 
limiting  the  annual  message  to  a  single  subject  imparted 
to  that  subject  a  prominence  which  compelled  the  atten 
tion  of  friends  and  foes.  It  clearly  showed  that  Mr. 
Cleveland  had  fixed  upon  it  as  the  issue  upon  which  he 
was  to  go  before  the  country  the  following  autumn  for 
reelection.  That  it  was  to  be  the  chief  issue  was  made 
inevitable  by  the  course  of  Mr.  Elaine,  the  Republican 
leader.  He  was  at  the  time  in  Paris  but  he  had  the 
habit  of  conducting  political  warfare  with  promptness 
and  vigor,  and  he  immediately  joined  issue  with  Mr. 
Cleveland  in  a  striking  interview  which  was  cabled 
to  the  New  York  "Tribune." 

The  issue  thus  dramatically  put  forward  by  the  re 
spective  leaders  of  the  two  parties  pitched  the  key 
for  discussion  in  the  newspapers  and  in  Congress.  The 
House  of  Representatives  inevitably  became  the  the 
atre  of  war.  Under  the  Constitution  taxation  bills 
were  compelled  to  originate  there,  and  the  Democratic 
Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  over  which  Roger  Q. 
Mills  presided  as  chairman,  brought  forward  the  Mills 
bill.  It  was  by  no  means  a  radical  free-trade  measure, 
but  portions  of  it  were  sufficiently  upon  free-trade  lines 
to  raise  the  issue.  The  brunt  of  the  fight  for  the  oppo 
sition  fell  to  Reed,  both  because  he  was  the  ranking 
man  of  his  party  in  the  committee  and  because  he  was 
its  leader  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  The  debate  was  a 
memorable  one,  with  Mills  and  Carlisle  the  leaders  for 


156  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  Democrats  and  Reed  and  McKinley  for  the  Re 
publicans.  Reed's  speeches  in  the  House  on  the  tariff 
had  usually  been  brief,  but  upon  this  bill  he  closed 
the  general  debate  for  his  side  in  one  of  the  longest 
speeches  he  ever  made  and  as  powerful  a  one,  it  may 
fairly  be  claimed,  as  was  ever  delivered  in  favor  of 
protective  duties  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
It  will  bear  reading  even  to  the  present  day,  notwith 
standing  the  threadbare  character  of  the  subject. 

He  began  by  a  fling  at  the  President's  relation  to 
civil-service  reform,  and  hinted  that  the  offices  were 
used  to  help  the  cause  of  tariff  reform.  Mr.  Cleveland, 
he  said,  was  rapidly  shaking  the  dust  of  civil-service 
reform  off  his  feet.  There  was  but  one  free  trade  and 
he  was  its  prophet.  "Whoever  falls  in  battle  in  the 
service  of  this  new  Allah  and  its  prophet,  for  him  shall 
open  the  shining  gates  of  the  heaven  of  foreign  mis 
sions  and  Federal  offices."  The  President  had  declared 
in  his  message  that  tariff  duties  raised  the  price  of 
dutiable  articles  "by  precisely  the  sum  paid  for  such 
duties,"  and  that  on  all  protected  domestic  articles 
the  consumer  paid  "nearly  or  quite  the  same  en 
hanced  price."  "That,"  declared  Reed,  "is  the  whole 
counsel  of  the  Lord  upon  the  subject."  He  then  pro 
ceeded  to  apply  this  formula,  reckoning  the  amount 
of  real  taxation  by  adding  the  amount  of  duties  on 
foreign  goods  to  all  articles  of  a  similar  kind  consumed 
in  the  country  and  he  showed  that  the  people  had  been 
robbed  of  some  billions  of  dollars  in  a  few  years.  To 
stop  this  incredible  robbery  was  the  first  duty.  That, 


RULES  — THE  MILLS  BILL  157 

he  declared,  would  be  accomplished  by  striking  off 
all  duties  upon  all  articles  produced  in  the  United 
States  and  by  raising  money  by  direct  taxation. 

But  what  do  the  friends  of  virtue  propose  to  do  with  these 
wicked  creatures?  Sweep  them  out  of  existence  with  the 
strong  hand  of  justice?  Ah,  no.  They  are  still  to  live  and 
still  to  nourish.  They  will  have  only  the  delightful  punish 
ment  of  being  turned  over  to  the  melting  eloquence  ...  of 
the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  while  he  explains  his  theory 
of  fair  plunder,  of  honest  and  decent  robbery,  with  no  re 
strictions  save  such  as  will  be  satisfactory  to  those  good 
manufacturers  who  have  been  admitted  to  private  inter 
views  by  the  back  stairs.  [Laughter.]  .  .  .  The  castles  of  these 
marauders  are  still  to  smile  upon  the  hill  tops,  and  the  tall 
chimneys  are  still  to  break  the  sky  line  of  this  unhappy 
country.  They  are  to  be  allowed  to  rob  within  seven  per 
cent  of  what  they  rob  now  and  as  compensation  they  are  to 
be  turned  loose  upon  the  markets  of  the  world  where,  accord 
ing  to  the  learned  chairman,  they  are  to  reap  larger  wealth 
and  pile  up  statelier  millions.  .  .  .  Great  heavens!  these 
amazing  plunderers  had  in  their  pockets  fifteen  thousand 
million  dollars  in  1882;  had  eight  hundred  millions  a  year 
since;  in  all  nineteen  thousand  eight  hundred  millions  or 
three  thousand  millions  more  than  this  whole  country  is 
listed  for  taxation,  and  the  Mills  bill  proposes  to  give  them 
more.  [Applause  and  laughter.]  Gentlemen  of  the  other  side, 
heroes  of  the  new  crusade,  if  you  believe  what  you  say,  is  it 
not  ample  time  that  this  tribute  cease?  If  the  President  is 
right,  and  you  don't  dare  to  doubt  him,  an  annual  tribute 
is  paid  protected  manufacturers  out  of  the  pockets  of  the 
people  more  impoverishing  than  was  ever  exacted  by  an 
Oriental  despot.  ...  In  the  face  of  your  plain  duty  to  free 
the  people  from  this  iron  yoke,  you  stand  higgling  about  the 
amount  of  the  tribute.  If  it  be  a  tribute,  be  bold  and  sweep  it 
away.  Why  do  you  hesitate?  It  is  because  every  wind  that 
blows,  every  sight  that  strikes  their  eyes,  every  sound  that 
resounds  in  their  ears,  shows  them  the  folly  of  their  theories 


158  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

and  the  absurdity  of  their  logic.  What  use  is  it  to  tell  the 
people  of  this  empire  that  they  have  been  robbed  and  plun 
dered  of  one  thousand  million  dollars  every  year? 

He  declared  that  he  did  not  propose  to  defend  protec 
tion. 

It  was  born  with  the  Republic.  It  is  the  faith  and  prac 
tice  of  every  civilized  nation  under  the  sun  save  one.  It  has 
survived  the  assaults  of  all  the  professors  of  the  "dismal 
science"  called  political  economy.  It  has  stood  up  against 
all  the  half-knowledge  of  learned  men  who  never  had  sense 
enough  to  transmute  their  learning  into  wisdom.  [Great  ap 
plause.] 

Mr.  Frank  Hurd  of  Ohio,  a  prominent  tariff-reform 
member,  or,  as  Reed  called  him,  "the  melodious  child 
of  free  trade,"  who  had  been  defeated  for  reelection, 
had  repeated  a  familiar  argument  which  Reed  stated 
and  dealt  with  in  the  following  fashion :  — 

If  a  laborer  with  two  dollars  in  his  pocket,  won  in  a  day  in 
protectionist  America,  can  buy  in  Liverpool  for  one  dollar 
what  he  wants,  and  you  make  him  pay  two  dollars  to  the 
Rhode  Island  manufacturer,  don't  you  cheat  him  every  day 
out  of  half  his  day?  Dear  departed  friend,  first  great  martyr 
in  this  great  cause,  why  not  put  it  the  other  way?  If  a  poor 
laboring  man  in  free-trade  America,  without  a  cent  in  his 
pocket  and  perhaps  no  pocket  in  his  trousers,  should  find 
out  that  things  cost  the  same  in  Rhode  Island  and  Liver 
pool,  would  the  happiness  he  would  undoubtedly  feel  be  any 
thing  more  than  an  intellectual  delight? 

He  said  that  something  like  envy  was  really  at  the 
bottom  of  some  of  the  arguments  on  the  other  side. 

Whenever  I  walk  through  the  streets  of  that  democratic 
importing  city  of  New  York  and  look  at  the  brown-stone 
fronts,  my  gorge  always  rises.  I  can  never  understand  why 


RULES  — THE   MILLS  BILL  159 

the  virtue,  which.  I  know  is  on  the  sidewalk,  is  not  thus  re 
warded.  I  do  not  feel  kindly  to  the  people  inside.  But  when 
I  feel  that  way  I  know  what  the  feeling  is.  It  is  good,  honest, 
high-minded  envy.  When  some  other  gentlemen  have  the 
same  feeling  they  think  it's  political  economy.  [Great  laughter.] 

The  cure  for  monopoly,  he  argued,  was  not  to  be 
found  in  free  trade. 

Call  in  the  British!  When  the  day  comes  when  this 
Republic  cannot  save  itself  from  a  dozen  of  its  own  citizens 
I  hope  to  be  buried  one  thousand  leagues  under  some 
respectable  and  permanent  mountain  range.  ...  If  the 
price  is  raised  and  maintained  even  for  a  short  while  it 
means  ruin  for  the  combination  and  still  lower  prices  for 
consumers.  That  is  one  of  the  laws  of  God  working  for  his 
children.  Compared  with  one  of  the  laws  of  Congress  it  is  a 
leviathan  to  a  clam. 

Another  catching  phrase  of  the  tariff-reform  orators 
was,  — 

"The  markets  of  the  world."  How  broad  and  cool  these 
words  are!  .  .  .  You  would  imagine  the  markets  of  the 
world  a  vast  vacuum  waiting  until  now  for  American  goods 
to  break  through,  rush  in  and  fill  the  yearning  void.  Will 
your  goods  go  to  Austria,  to  Italy,  Germany,  Russia,  or 
France?  Around  all  these  benighted  countries  are  the 
Chinese  walls  of  tariff  taxes. 

The  best  market  of  the  world  was  in  America, 

and  you  are  asked  to  give  up  such  a  market  for  the  "markets 
of  the  world"!  Why,  the  history  of  such  a  transaction  was 
told  twenty-four  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  a  classic.  You  will 
find  it  in  the  works  of  ^Esop  the  fabulist.  Once  there  was  a 
dog.  He  was  a  nice  little  dog.  Nothing  the  matter  with  him 
excepting  a  few  foolish  free-trade  ideas  in  his  head.  He  was 
trotting  along  happy  as  the  day,  for  he  had  in  his  mouth  a 
nice  shoulder  of  succulent  mutton.  By  and  by  he  came  to  a 


160  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

stream  bridged  by  a  plank.  He  trotted  along  and  looked 
over  the  side  of  the  plank  and  he  saw  the  markets  of  the 
world  [great  laughter],  and  dived  for  them.  A  minute  after, 
he  was  crawling  up  the  bank,  the  wettest,  the  sickest  [great 
laughter]  the  nastiest,  the  most  muttonless  dog  that  ever 
swam  ashore. 

After  the  general  debate  closed,  the  bill  was  for  a 
long  time  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  House  for 
amendment,  and  Reed  occasionally  took  part  in  the 
discussion  under  the  five-minute  rule. 

Mills  of  Texas,  the  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means, 
was  not  distinguished  for  restraint  in  the  use  of  lan 
guage,  and  he  did  not  always  keep  his  temper.  One 
day  Reed  said  of  him  that  it  seemed  strange  that  when 
he  was  asked  to  explain  the  features  of  his  bill,  he 
"finds  it  necessary  to  fly  into  a  passion,  finds  it  neces 
sary  to  go  off  into  a  defense  of  his  own  virtue."  At 
another  time,  when  Mills  had  charged  the  Republican 
party  with  being  in  favor  of  "free  whisky,"  Reed  re 
torted  that  he  could  not  mean  that,  because  "he  knows 
there  would  not  be  enough  Democrats  left  to  make 
up  the  electoral  ticket  in  half  the  states  of  the  Union 
if  they  had  confidence  in  his  statement.  [Laughter  and 
applause.]  Oh,  the  gentleman  from  Texas  had  better 
remember  the  position  he  occupies  in  this  House,  and 
divert  himself  with  those  things  when  he  finds  himself 
on  the  far-off  pampas  of  his  own  Texas."  [Laughter 
and  applause.] 

The  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  majority  of  thirteen, 
which  was  slightly  less  than  the  usual  Democratic 
majority,  and  Republican  orators  in  the  subsequent 


RULES  — THE  MILLS  BILL  161 

campaign  enlarged  upon  the  ill  omen  supposed  to  at 
tach  to  the  figure  of  the  majority  and  to  the  fact  that 
it  was  cast  on  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Bull 
Bun. 

Reed  maintained  his  former  position  that  the  coun 
try  should  be  suitably  defended.  On  August  1, 1888, 
speaking  on  a  proposition  to  authorize  the  building  of 
guns,  he  said,  "What  I  demand  is  that  this  House  shall 
take  practical  action  to  bring  us  up  abreast  of  the 
present  and  not  let  us  lose  ourselves  in  those  clouds 
of  patriotism,  of  capital,  of  'sixty  million  of  people/  all 
those  glittering  generalities  which  never  yet  built  a 
cannon." 

Until  the  election  in  November,  1888,  the  country 
had  few  other  subjects  for  political  discussion  than  the 
tariff.  Reed's  speech  in  the  House  was  widely  printed, 
and  the  campaign  produced  nothing  else  which  so  ef 
fectively  presented  the  Republican  side  of  that  issue. 
General  Harrison,  the  Republican  candidate,  conducted 
his  campaign  at  his  own  home,  where  he  addressed 
many  delegations  of  visiting  Republicans,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  country,  in  short  and  happy  epigram 
matic  speeches.  Harrison  was  chosen  by  a  close  vote 
in  the  doubtful  states,  but  by  a  large  majority  in  the 
Electoral  College.  The  House  was  also  carried  by  the 
Republicans,  who  retained  possession  of  the  Senate, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  sixteen  years  both  Houses 
and  the  presidency  were  in  the  control  of  the  same 
party. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SPEAKER — THE   QUORUM 

As  soon  as  it  had  been  determined  that  the  House  was 
to  be  Republican,  an  animated  contest  among  the  mem 
bers  elect  was  at  once  entered  upon  for  the  Speaker- 
ship.  Reed's  position  as  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House 
made  him  the  natural  selection,  but  he  was  from  one 
of  the  smaller  states,  remote  from  the  center  of  popu 
lation,  and  the  argument  founded  on  geography, 
logically  not  appealing  but  often  convincing  in  our 
politics,  was  against  him.  His  leading  antagonist  was 
McKinley,  who  had  great  personal  popularity  and  who 
came  from  the  important  and  centrally  located  state 
of  Ohio.  There  were  other  candidates,  among  whom 
was  Henderson  of  Iowa.  Reed  had  many  loyal  friends, 
and  among  the  foremost  of  them  was  Lodge,  then  a 
representative  from  Massachusetts,  who  was  indefati 
gable  in  his  efforts  to  bring  support  to  Reed.  He  began 
the  contest  with  New  England  solidly  behind  him. 
New  York  soon  followed.  His  friends  urged  his  skillful 
and  bold  leadership  of  his  party  in  the  House  while  in 
the  minority,  as  a  controlling  reason  for  nominating 
him  when  it  became  the  majority  party.  He  had  borne 
the  brunt  of  the  fighting;  to  him  should  come  the  rec 
ognition  in  victory  which  had  been  accorded  him  in 


SPEAKER— THE  QUORUM  163 

defeat.  Otherwise  he  would  be  deprived  of  his  fair 
share  in  the  triumph  of  his  party. 

The  vote  proved  to  be  extremely  close  in  the  Repub 
lican  caucus.  No  candidate  had  a  majority  on  the  first 
ballot,  although  Reed  was  a  strong  leader  and  lacked 
only  six  votes  of  receiving  the  necessary  number.  On 
the  second  ballot  he  gained  seven  votes  from  the  forces 
of  the  other  candidates,  and  received  eighty -five  votes, 
or  one  more  than  a  majority.  Thus  he  did  not  owe 
his  nomination  to  a  coalition  with  any  other  candidate. 
The  choice  of  the  caucus  was  ratified  in  the  House  when 
it  assembled  on  December  2,  1889.  Reed  received  the 
votes  of  166  members  to  154  for  Carlisle. 

The  Speakership  brought  Reed  a  far  broader  oppor 
tunity  for  public  service  than  he  had  ever  before 
enjoyed.  It  gave  him  the  leadership  of  the  popular 
House  of  Congress,  a  leadership  not  merely  formal 
in  its  nature  but  with  powers  that  made  the  office 
almost  superfluously  strong.  Ever  since  the  first  Con 
gress  the  appointment  of  committees  had  been  vested 
in  the  Speaker.  This  power  gave  him  an  influence  with 
those  members  who  received  the  most  coveted  appoint 
ments.  On  the  other  hand,  that  influence  was  to  some 
extent  offset  by  the  effect  of  the  disappointment  of 
the  other  and  more  numerous  members  who  had  placed 
a  higher  estimate  upon  their  own  capacity  than  was 
reflected  in  the  appointments  which  the  Speaker  gave 
them.  It  had  also  been  the  rule  for  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  for  the  Speaker  to  be  ex  qfficio  Chairman 
of  the  powerful  Committee  on  Rules.  These  special 


164  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

powers  made  him  much  more  than  a  nominal  leader, 
and  they  cast  on  him  a  responsibility  which  he  could 
not  evade  and  which  to  our  modern  Speakers  has  usu 
ally  been  a  source  of  unpopularity. 

Reed's  speech  on  taking  the  chair  was  a  model,  not 
merely  in  point  of  brevity  but  in  the  substance  of  what 
he  said.  After  thanking  the  House  for  the  honor,  he 
said  that  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  Speaker- 
ship  were  "both  political  and  parliamentary.  So  far 
as  the  duties  are  political,  I  sincerely  hope  they  may 
be  performed  with  a  proper  sense  of  what  is  due  to 
the  people  of  this  whole  country.  So  far  as  they  are 
parliamentary,  I  hope,  with  equal  sincerity,  that  they 
may  be  performed  with  a  proper  sense  of  what  is  due 
to  both  sides  of  this  Chamber." 

The  House  contained  a  large  number  of  strong  men. 
On  the  Democratic  side  were  Carlisle,  Randall,  Crisp, 
Wilson,  Turner,  and  Springer.  On  the  Republican  side 
were  McKinley,  Butterworth,  Hitt,  Cannon,  Hen 
derson,  Dalzell,  Dolliver,  La  Follette,  Sherman,  and 
Payne.  The  list  of  men  who  afterwards  attained  dis 
tinction  might  easily  be  prolonged. 

The  Republican  majority  would  have  been  an  ex 
tremely  narrow  one  for  the  transaction  of  business, 
even  if  the  opposition  had  not  employed  filibustering 
as  a  parliamentary  weapon.  A  quorum  of  the  House 
consisted  of  166  members  on  the  day  of  Reed's  elec 
tion,  and  that  was  the  precise  vote  which  he  received. 
By  the  subsequent  death  of  a  Republican  member  it 
was  reduced  to  165.  It  was  obvious  that  only  upon  rare 


SPEAKER  — THE  QUORUM  165 

occasions  would  the  Republican  party  be  able  again  to 
marshal  so  many  of  its  members  as  on  the  opening  day 
of  the  session.  If  the  burden  of  maintaining  a  quorum 
was  to  be  borne  by  that  party,  evidently  there  would 
be  either  no  legislation  at  all  or  only  such  as  its  oppo 
nents  would  agree  to  have  enacted.  In  the  partisan 
temper  that  then  prevailed  there  was  little  likelihood 
of  the  transaction  of  any  except  the  most  formal  busi 
ness  by  the  consent  of  both  sides. 

With  the  parties  so  nearly  balanced  violent  partisan 
ship  was  not  long  in  breaking  into  a  flame.  The  diffi 
culty  first  assumed  an  acute  phase  upon  the  approval 
of  the  Journal,  which  is  usually  a  perfunctory  matter 
of  business.  The  somewhat  censorious  Bland  of  Mis 
souri  insisted  that  the  Speaker,  in  advance  of  the  adop 
tion  of  rules  by  the  House,  should  recognize  him  on  a 
call  for  tellers.  There  was  a  partisan  discussion  upon 
this  subject,  and  the  Democratic  leaders  approached 
the  limit  of  parliamentary  courtesy  in  their  criticism 
of  the  Speaker.  It  was  evident  that  no  party  legislation 
whatever  could  be  accomplished  under  the  practice 
which  had  prevailed  from  the  beginning  of  the  govern 
ment  of  determining  a  quorum  simply  by  the  call  of 
the  roll,  for  the  Democrats  would  sit  silent  when  their 
names  were  called  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  Re: 
publicans  to  marshal  the  necessary  165  members. 

The  issue  was  finally  drawn  in  a  way  not  to  be  evaded. 
On  January  29,  1890,  Dalzell  reported  from  the  Com 
mittee  on  Elections  a  resolution  in  a  contested  election 
case  awarding  the  disputed  seat  to  a  Republican.  Crisp 


166  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

raised  the  question  of  consideration,  and  only  163 
members  responded,  or  two  less  than  a  quorum.  Not 
merely  was  it  beyond  the  power  of  the  Republicans  to 
produce  a  quorum  at  that  time,  but  it  appeared  equally 
certain  that  they  would  not  be  able  to  produce  one  at 
any  time  during  that  Congress.  It  would  require  the 
presence  of  all  the  living  Republican  members  on  the 
opening  day,  and  that  every  man  of  them  could  be 
marshaled  at  any  one  time  did  not  seem  to  be  within 
the  bounds  of  possibility.  The  time  had  come  when  the 
only  alternatives  were  either  a  complete  surrender  or 
something  which  in  the  light  of  the  precedents  of  a 
century  would  be  revolutionary. 

Reed  had  carefully  planned  to  meet  the  emergency 
which  had  long  seemed  to  him  inevitable  and  had 
determined  upon  his  course.  But  the  element  of  doubt 
was  whether  his  party  associates  in  the  House  would 
sanction  the  radical  course  which  he  meditated.  He 
was  intending  to  overturn  not  merely  Democratic 
precedents  but  Republican  precedents  as  well.  Times 
almost  without  number  the  leaders  of  his  own  party 
had  maintained  that  the  constitutional  quorum  was  to 
be  determined  by  the  roll-call,  and  not  by  the  bodily 
presence  of  members.  The  position  had  never  seriously, 
been  questioned  that,  if  a  majority  of  the  representa 
tives  failed  to  answer  to  their  names  on  the  calling 
of  the  roll,  there  was  no  quorum  present  for  the  trans 
action  of  business,  even  if  every  member  might  ac 
tually  be  present  in  the  hall  of  the  House.  The  leader 
of  any  party  might  well  doubt  whether  he  would  be 


SPEAKER  — THE  QUORUM  167 

sustained  in  overturning  a  construction  so  long  estab 
lished  and  acquiesced  in  by  all  parties.  Reed  had  made 
up  his  mind  upon  the  course  he  should  pursue.  He  did 
not  propose  to  surrender  and  if  his  party  failed  to  sus 
tain  him  he  had  determined  to  resign  the  Speakership 
and  to  retire  from  the  House.1 

Thus  it  came  about  that  when  only  163  members 
answered  to  their  names,  the  House  was  not  embarked 
upon  the  usual  succession  of  fruitless  roll-calls.  Instead 
of  ordering  the  roll  to  be  called  again,  Reed  calmly 
said:  "The  Chair  directs  the  clerk  to  record  the  names 
of  the  following  members  present  and  refusing  to  vote." 
He  then  proceeded  to  name  a  number  of  Democrats 
and  among  them  Carlisle  and  other  Democratic  leaders 
who  were  present  when  their  names  were  called  and 
who  refrained  from  voting. 

At  once  the  House  was  in  an  uproar.  There  was  an 
explosion  as  violent  as  was  ever  witnessed  in  a  legis 
lative  body.  The  Speaker's  recital  of  the  names  was 
interrupted  by  passionate  remonstrance.  His  course 
was  denounced  as  revolutionary.  For  a  considerable 
time  the  tumult  stopped  the  business  of  the  House. 
Reed  remained  unruffled,  and  when  the  noise  would 
for  a  moment  subside  he  would  add  to  his  count  of  Dem 
ocrats  present  and  not  voting.  One  member  of  much 
dignity,  but  not  conspicuous  for  a  sense  of  humor, 

1  My  authority  for  this  statement  is  Hon.  Elihu  Root.  Mr.  Root 
informed  me  that  in  advance  of  his  ruling  Reed  had  told  him  of  his 
purpose  to  make  it,  and  that  if  his  party  did  not  support  him  he 
should  resign  and  practice  law  in  New  York.  An  understanding  was 
arrived  at  that  he  was  to  enter  Mr.  Root's  law  office. 


168  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

gravely  arose  with  a  book  in  his  hand  and  said: 
"I  deny  your  right,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  count  me  as 
present  and  I  desire  to  read  from  the  parliamentary 
law  on  that  subject."  Reed  raised  a  hearty  laugh  by 
coolly  saying  in  reply,  and  with  his  customary  drawl : 
"The  Chair  is  making  a  statement  of  fact  that  the 
gentleman  from  Kentucky  is  present.  Does  he  deny 
it?" 

After  the  noise  had  subsided  sufficiently  for  the 
Speaker  to  make  a  connected  statement  he  proceeded 
to  state  the  question  to  the  House,  "The  Chair  treats 
this  subject  in  orderly  fashion,  and  will  submit  his 
opinion  to  the  House,  which,  if  not  acquiesced  in  by 
the  House,  can  be  overruled  on  an  appeal  taken  from 
the  decision."  He  then  proceeded  to  state  his  opinion, 
in  a  few  words  and  yet  so  weightily  that,  while  the 
argument  might  be  greatly  amplified,  it  could  not  be 
more  clearly  put.  He  held  that  the  Constitution  con 
templated  that  when  a  majority  of  the  members  were 
actually  present  there  was  a  quorum  for  the  transac 
tion  of  business  whether  they  voted  or  refused  to  vote. 
Referring  to  the  constitutional  power  of  the  House 
to  compel  the  attendance  of  absent  members,  he  said: 
"If  members  can  be  present  and  refuse  to  exercise 
their  function,  to  wit,  not  be  counted  as  a  quorum, 
that  provision  would  seem  to  be  entirely  nugatory. 
Inasmuch  as  the  Constitution  only  provides  for  their 
attendance,  that  attendance  is  enough.  If  more  was 
needed  the  Constitution  would  have  provided  for 


SPEAKER  — THE  QUORUM  169 

This  ruling  was  followed  by  a  scene  of  disorder  even 
greater  than  that  which  had  preceded  it,  and  for  three 
days  the  House  was  a  perfect  bedlam.  The  Speaker 
was  denounced  not  only  in  parliamentary  but  in  un 
parliamentary  terms.  All  the  old  weapons  in  the  ar 
senal  of  obstruction  were  brought  into  play  and  one 
after  another  Reed  ruled  them  out  of  order.  Some  of 
them  he  declared  were  not  even  subject  to  an  appeal 
from  the  Chair.  One  member,  Breckinridge  of  Ken 
tucky,  shouted:  "The  Speaker's  decision  is  clearly 
corrupt."  Reed  was  accused  of  being  a  czar  and  of 
usurping  jurisdiction.  His  decision  was  pronounced 
revolutionary,  which  was  doubtless  correct  when  it  is 
compared  with  the  decisions  made  by  Speakers  for  a 
great  number  of  years.  There  was  little  difficulty  in 
showing  in  the  argument  which  followed  that  the 
Speaker  had  overruled  all  the  precedents,  and  that  he 
himself,  in  common  with  all  the  members  of  the  House 
who  had  borne  any  important  part  in  its  proceedings, 
had  recognized  the  opposite  procedure.  He  did  not 
pretend  that  he  was  obeying  the  precedents  of  the 
House,  but  admitted  that  he  was  overruling  them.  He 
simply  reverted  to  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  and 
claimed  that  the  quorum  established  by  that  instru 
ment  was  a  present  and  not  a  voting  quorum.  During 
those  three  days  of  wild  excitement  apparently  the 
coolest  man  in  the  House  was  the  Speaker. 

The  debate  was  noteworthy  in  point  of  ability,  Car 
lisle,  Crisp,  and  Turner  distinguishing  themselves  on 
the  Democratic  side  while  McKinley,  Cannon,  and 


170  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Butterworth  led  on  the  Republican  side.  Perhaps  the 
ablest  speech  of  the  debate  was  made  by  Butterworth. 
He  argued  that  a  representative  was  chosen  to  serve 
not  merely  his  own  constituency  but  the  whole  coun 
try,  and  that  he  had  no  warrant  to  attempt  to  paralyze 
the  action  of  the  House,  but  that  the  country  had  a 
right  to  require  that  he  should  be  in  his  place  and  per 
form  his  duties.  "For  that  reason  the  Constitution 
provides  that  those  who  are  here  may,  by  force,  bring 
the  rest  of  the  members  into  this  Hall,  not  merely  to 
serve  their  own  constituents,  but  to  serve  that  broader 
constituency,  the  people  of  this  country  whose  servants 
they  are."  What  was  the  object  of  the  power  to  com 
pel  members  to  attend? 

To  leave  the  House  in  precisely  the  same  condition  as  be 
fore  they  were  brought  in,  a  condition  which  rendered  it 
necessary  to  bring  them  in  to  change  and  improve  it  ?  Was 
this  authority  conferred  by  the  Constitution  only  to  enable 
us  to  go  through  the  farce  of  bringing  in  the  absentees  and 
learning  after  each  member  has  been  seated  in  his  place 
that,  while  under  the  Constitution  he  is  actually  personally 
present  to  make  a  quorum  to  do  business,  yet  when  an  at 
tempt  is  made  to  do  the  thing  which  required  his  presence, 
he  at  once  by  merely  closing  his  mouth  becomes  construc 
tively  absent?  Or  he  may,  in  fact,  while  present,  arise  in  his 
place  and  assert  that  he  is  absent,  and  we  must  take  his 
word  for  it.  What  an  absurdity  on  the  face  of  it,  no  matter 
how  sanctified  by  age!  It  is  the  weapon  of  the  revolutionist. 
It  is  the  weapon  of  anarchy. 

At  last  the  question  whether  the  Speaker's  decision 
should  be  overruled  was  submitted  to  the  House.  A 
mere  handful  of  the  Republicans  voting  with  the  Demo 
crats  would  have  overthrown  the  Speaker  and  his 


SPEAKER  — THE  QUORUM  171 

ruling.  But  his  party  stood  with  him  to  a  man.  After 
much  filibustering  the  ruling  was  sustained. 

Thus  was  established  the  most  important  landmark 
in  the  parliamentary  practice  of  the  House.  It  seems 
difficult  to  believe  that  there  should  ever  have  been 
any  other  construction  put  upon  the  Constitution  than 
that  the  power  to  compel  the  attendance  of  absent 
members  in  order  to  secure  a  quorum  was  for  the  pur 
pose  of  enabling  the  House  to  transact  the  business 
of  the  country,  and  not  simply  for  the  purpose  of  per 
mitting  those  who  were  present  to  look  upon  the  faces 
of  those  who  had  been  absent.  Not  merely  did  the 
Supreme  Court  subsequently  sustain  the  constitution 
ality  of  Reed's  ruling,  but  within  a  brief  period,  by  the 
indorsement  of  his  party  antagonists,  it  was  destined 
to  become  the  settled  law  of  the  House.  In  the  two  next 
succeeding  Congresses  the  House  was  controlled  by 
the  Democrats  and  the  ancient  practice  was  reestab 
lished.  At  an  important  juncture  they  found  them 
selves  unable  to  procure  a  quorum  from  their  own 
ranks.  And  as  Reed  had  established  the  new  prece 
dent,  so  there  came  to  him  the  distinction  of  forcing 
his  antagonists  to  ratify  it.  After  his  retirement  from 
the  Speakership  he  had  become  the  leader  of  the  Repub 
licans  upon  the  floor.  He  inaugurated  a  determined 
filibuster  and  under  his  lead  the  members  of  his  party 
declined  to  vote.  For  weeks  the  House  was  unable  to 
make  the  slightest  progress  in  the  transaction  of  busi 
ness.  It  was  bound  hand  and  foot.  The  deadlock  was 
at  last  broken  by  the  adoption  of  a  rule  providing  that 


172  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

//a  member  who  was  present  might  be  counted  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  quorum,  whether  he  voted  or  not. 
The  fact  that  the  counting  under  the  Democratic 
rule  was  to  be  done  by  two  tellers  made  no  difference 
in  the  principle  involved,  and  ever  since  that  time  the 
rule  of  a  present  instead  of  a  voting  quorum,  as  es 
tablished  by  Reed,  has  been  the  rule  of  the  House,  no 
matter  by  what  party  it  has  been  controlled. 

The  riding  has  resulted  in  saving  a  great  amount  of 
the  time  of  the  House,  and  has  facilitated  the  transac 
tion  of  its  business.  It  has  done  away  with  a  system 
which  might  in  critical  times  produce  a  paralysis  of 
our  popular  representative  assembly,  and  it  has  con 
duced  to  party  responsibility.  This  achievement  stands 
as  a  signal  triumph  for  Reed's  clearness  of  vision; 
and  in  the  strength  with  which  he  maintained  his  posi 
tion  against  tremendous  pressure  and  in  the  face  of 
the  precedents  of  a  century,  and  in  the  serene  courage 
and  self-control  with  which  he  bore  himself  amid  those 
violent  and  stormy  scenes  without  parallel  in  the  his 
tory  of  Congress,  it  furnishes  convincing  proof  of  the 
greatness  of  his  character. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   SHERMAN   SILVER-PURCHASE   BILL 

THE  decision  concerning  the  quorum  enabled  the  Re 
publicans  to  dispose  of  their  legislative  programme. 
Not  the  least  important  problem  pressing  for  solution 
was  that  relating  to  the  use  of  silver  in  the  currency. 
The  coinage  of  the  so-called  Bland-Allison  dollars, 
which  were  legal  tender,  had  resulted  in  adding  to  the 
currency  a  vast  quantity  of  silver  dollars,  the  bullion 
value  of  which  was  very  much  less  than  that  of  the 
gold  dollar.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  government  to 
maintain  the  parity  of  all  its  money,  and  so  long  as 
the  treasury  stock  of  gold  was  sufficient,  the  value 
of  the  dollar,  whether  paper  or  silver,  or  whatever 
its  character,  was  equal  to  that  of  the  gold  in  a  gold 
dollar.  But  it  had  become  apparent  that  a  too  heavy 
burden  was  being  placed  upon  the  gold  reserve,  which 
had  originally  been  created  for  the  redemption  of  the 
greenbacks.  That  reserve  was  none  too  large  in  times 
of  stress  for  the  three  hundred  and  odd  millions  of 
greenbacks,  but  when  there  was  added  a  nearly  equal 
amount  of  legal-tender  silver  dollars,  the  strain  was 
certain  to  become  too  great  the  instant  that  a  finan 
cial  crisis  occurred. 

A  large  minority  of  the  Republican  members  and 
a  majority  of  the  Democrats  favored  the  free  coinage 


174  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

of  silver.  Without  doubt  a  majority  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress  would  have  voted  in  favor  of  a  measure 
to  that  end,  providing  it  had  been  squarely  presented. 
Reed  was  strongly  opposed  to  free  coinage.  Represent 
ing  his  own  views  and  that  of  a  majority  of  the  Repub 
lican  members,  he  did  his  utmost  to  prevent  the  pas 
sage  of  a  free-coinage  bill.  It  would  have  been  a  simple 
device  for  the  President,  who  did  not  favor  free  coin 
age,  to  interpose  the  veto.  But  he  was  a  candidate  for 
reelection,  and  his  friends  believed  that  a  veto  would 
destroy  his  prospect  of  being  again  chosen.  There  ap 
peared  to  be  some  doubt  what  his  action  would  be. 
But  in  any  event  they  did  not  desire  to  put  him  in  the 
heroic  attitude  of  saving  the  public  credit  by  consciously 
throwing  away  his  chance  of  reelection  and  ensuring 
the  choice  of  a  Democrat  as  his  successor.  As  he  was 
destined  to  defeat  in  any  event,  in  the  safe  light  of  sub 
sequent  wisdom  it  would  have  turned  out  to  be  better 
for  the  country  and  for  his  own  fame,  if  a  free-coinage 
bill  had  been  passed  and  vetoed.  But  Reed  was  so 
strongly  opposed  to  free  coinage  that  he  did  not  care  to 
take  any  chances  of  its  becoming  law.  The  passage  of 
some  sort  of  a  silver  bill  was  inevitable  and  he  strove 
to  make  it  as  far  as  possible  from  free  coinage.  A  com 
promise  was  agreed  upon  which  provided  that  4,500,000 
ounces  of  silver  should  be  purchased  each  month  in  the 
open  market,  and  that  treasury  notes,  redeemable  in 
gold,  should  be  issued  up  to  the  actual  cost  of  the  silver. 
The  large  party  who  believed  that  it  was  necessary  to 
"  do  something  for  silver,"  and  some  of  those  who  were 


THE  SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE  BILL    175 

interested  in  the  production  of  the  metal  joined  forces 
with  the  gold-standard  members  and  substituted  this 
policy  for  free  coinage.  It  was  contended  that  the 
purchase  of  so  much  silver  each  month  would  raise  the 
price  of  the  metal  and  diminish  the  gap  existing  be 
tween  the  intrinsic  values  of  the  silver  and  the  gold 
dollar.  An  act  was  passed  on  those  lines  and  was  for 
tunately  destined  to  a  very  brief  life.  Reed  subse 
quently  said  of  this  act:  "  That  it  then  and  there  saved 
this  country  from  the  free  coinage  for  which  every 
Democratic  leader  was  then  clamoring,  and  on  which 
they  are  now  silent,  I  do  know." 

Another  important  feature  of  the  Republican  pol 
icy  was  a  revision  of  the  tariff.  It  was  necessary  to 
reduce  the  revenue,  and  this  was  accomplished  chiefly 
in  two  ways,  by  removing  the  duty  on  sugar  and  by 
placing  the  duty  on  many  articles  so  high  as  to  reduce 
importation  and  thereby  cut  down  the  revenue  de 
rived  from  them.  Some  duties  were  made  much  too 
high,  even  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Republican 
policy  of  protection.  The  popular  feature  of  the  law 
was  found  in  the  reciprocity  amendments,  put  there  at 
the  insistence  of  Elaine,  who  was  at  the  time  Secretary 
of  State.  Another  important  party  measure  was  the 
so-called  Force  Bill,  which  provided  for  United  States 
marshals  to  supervise  national  elections.  This  measure 
was  strongly  resisted  even  in  the  Republican  caucus, 
and  after  a  contest  lasting  three  days  was  finally 
adopted  only  by  a  majority  of  one.  That  an  important 
measure  which  so  evenly  divided  the  party  should  have 


176  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

received  its  practically  unanimous  support  in  the  House 
affords  a  striking  example  of  the  rigid  discipline  and 
the  closeness  with  which  party  lines  were  then  drawn. 
Cannon,  who  had  with  signal  ability  led  the  attack 
on  the  bill  in  the  caucus,  accepted  the  decision  and 
reported  to  the  House  from  the  Rules  Committee  the 
order  giving  the  measure  the  right  of  way. 

Among  the  charges  made  against  Reed's  conduct 
in  the  Chair  was  one  that  he  impaired  what  was  called 
the  "freedom  of  debate."  He  was  in  favor  of  per 
mitting  the  House  to  decide,  in  any  given  debate, 
when  it  had  heard  enough  of  talking.  The  "previous 
question"  had  been  developed  long  before  Reed's  day. 
It  had  been  made  necessary  because,  as  the  size  of  the 
House  increased,  debate  was  often  indulged  in  for  the 
purely  physical  purpose  of  delay.  On  one  occasion  a 
member  had  held  the  floor  continuously  for  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  the  substance  of  what  he  said  could 
doubtless  have  been  compressed  within  the  compass 
of  a  few  minutes.  To  permit  a  man,  under  the  pre 
tense  of  debating,  to  monopolize  the  time  of  the  House, 
to  prevent  it  from  taking  action,  and  to  consume  the 
time  of  the  other  members  as  well  as  his  own,  never 
impressed  Reed  as  conspicuously  illustrating  the  free 
dom  of  debate.  In  the  picturesque  diction  of  Repre 
sentative  Charles  B.  Landis,  of  Indiana,  "he  did 
not  gag  debate,  he  simply  gagged  the  horse-traders  in  a 
public  place  who  sought  to  gag  business.  He  thought 
that  a  man  who  had  a  private  balloon  to  inflate  should 
hire  a  field."  The  same  gentleman  observed,  upon  the 


THE  SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE  BILL    177 

counting  of  the  quorum:  "He  believed  that  when  a 
burly  demagogue  shouted  until  the  acoustics  bled,  it 
was  prima  facie  evidence  that  he  was  in  the  vicinity, 
and  could  be  counted."  1 

Since  the  Civil  War  there  has  been  no  session  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  characterized  by  the 
partisan  acrimony  that  marked  the  first  session  of 
the  Fifty-first  Congress.  The  Speaker  was  the  cen 
tral  object  of  attack,  and  he  bore  himself  through 
out  with  that  remarkable  coolness  and  good  nature 
which  under  the  circumstances  was  the  most  striking 
proof  of  real  courage.  Mr.  Lodge  says  of  Reed's 
conduct :  — 

I  followed  and  watched  him  through  all  that  session  of 
bitter  conflict  and  stormy  attack.  Not  only  did  he  exhibit 
throughout  the  qualities  I  have  mentioned,  but,  although  he 
was  capable  of  wrath  and  strongly  combative,  I  never  saw 
his  good  nature  fail,  or  his  ready  wit  turn,  as  it  might  well 
have  done,  to  anger  and  fierce  denunciation.  I  remember  that, 
one  evening,  when  obstruction  had  been  employed  for  hours 
to  prevent  a  vote,  and  everybody  was  tired  and  in  a  bad 
temper,  I  went  up  to  the  Speaker's  desk  and  asked  how  long 
this  business  was  to  last.  Mr.  Reed,  perfectly  unruffled, 
turned  around  with  a  pleasant  smile,  and  said:  "We  shall 
get  a  vote  in  about  an  hour.  Springer  has  only  two  more 
pieces  in  his  repertoire." 

A  political  campaign  following  such  a  session  was 
sure  to  be  bitterly  fought.  The  election  in  Reed's 
district  was  held  two  months  in  advance  of  the  gen 
eral  election,  and  before  the  passage  of  the  tariff  bill. 
The  ruling  concerning  the  quorum  attracted  especial 

1  Article  by  Mr.  Landis,  in  the  Peru,  Indiana,  Republican. 


178  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

attention  in  his  personal  campaign.  It  was  something 
for  which  the  initial  responsibility  was  wholly  upon 
him.  On  the  stump  he  stoutly  defended  his  course, 
which  he  declared  was  necessary  to  give  vitality  to  our 
kind  of  government.  "Of  what  use,"  he  said  at  Port 
land,  "was  an  election  itself,  that  grand  culmination 
of  the  power  of  the  citizen,  if,  after  all,  nothing  could 
be  done  without  the  sanction  of  the  beaten  party? 
What  statesman  could  there  be  so  foolish  as  to  bat 
tle  for  power  with  responsibility  when  he  could  have 
the  same  power  without  responsibility?"  He  was  re 
ceived  with  such  extraordinary  enthusiasm  throughout 
his  district  that  he  believed  that  he  should  be  reflected. 
Having  been  accustomed  to  small  majorities,  he  hoped 
to  receive  fifteen  hundred  votes  over  his  antagonist. 
But  he  won  by  the  surprising  plurality  of  4516,  which 
was  much  the  largest  that  had  ever  been  given  him,  and, 
with  a  single  exception,  four  times  what  he  had  ever 
previously  received. 

He  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  campaign  through 
out  the  country.  Speaking  at  Pittsburg,  April  £6, 1890, 
he  said:  — 

If  we  are  not  to-day  in  the  forefront  of  human  progress,  to 
have  been  followers  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  years  gone  by 
is  not  an  honor  but  a  burning  disgrace.  Progress  is  of  the 
essence  of  Republicanism.  To  have  met  great  emergencies  as 
they  arose  has  been  our  history.  To  meet  great  emergencies 
as  they  shall  arise  must  be  our  daily  walk  and  duty  or  we 
cease  to  be.  Hanging  on  to  the  old  traditions  is  the  business 
of  the  Democratic  party,  and  it  does  that  business  well;  we 
can  never  rival  it.  Politicians  are  only  eleventh-hour  men. 
They  are  worthy  of  their  hire,  but  they  never  bear  the 


THE  SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE  BILL    179 

burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  If  they  cry  aloud  before  their 
hour  they  only  turn  back  the  shadow  on  the  dial. 

He  maintained  that  the  election  of  national  officers 
should  be  controlled  by  national  laws.  There  would 
be  no  danger  in  the  nation  of  the  domination  of  the 
black  man's  vote,  because  the  white  race  greatly  out 
numbered  the  black  in  the  country. 

If  cheating  at  the  polls  be  only  a  pious  fraud,  in  South 
Carolina  excusable,  because  the  white  man  is  superior  in 
intellect  though  inferior  in  numbers,  there  can  be  no  such 
excuse  in  the  United  States  election,  where  the  white  man 
with  his  superior  intellect  is  superior  in  numbers  also! 

He  spoke  to  an  enormous  audience  at  New  Haven 
on  October  3.  The  New  York  "Tribune"  said  that  no 
Republican  ever  received  such  an  ovation  in  Connecti 
cut.  He  denounced  obstruction  and  said  that  at  the 
previous  session  there  had  been  over  four  hundred  roll- 
calls,  of  which  three  hundred  were  as  useless  as  the 
platform  of  the  Democratic  party.  "It  is  a  magnifi 
cent  tribute  to  us,  thus  spending  one  whole  month  of 
our  time  calling  over  our  own  names." 

At  Champaign,  Illinois,  October  21,  he  spoke  on  the 
grounds  of  the  University  of  Illinois  to  fifteen  thousand 
people.  "I  am  used,"  he  said,  "to  the  peaceful  ways 
of  the  East  and  this  multitude  exercises  a  sort  of 
terror  on  me,  for  this  is  the  first  time  that  I  ever  faced 
so  big  a  crowd." 

At  Burlington,  Iowa,  on  October  22,  he  was  compelled 
to  speak  twice  in  order  to  reach  the  vast  numbers  who 
had  assembled.  On  October  24,  an  enormous  audience 


180  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

greeted  him  in  Chicago.  "There  was  nothing  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  Democratic  party,"  he  said,  "to 
prevent  it  from  being  denunciatory  of  the  greenback 
when  we  were  issuing  it  for  the  salvation  of  the  coun 
try  and  then  being  violently  in  favor  of  it  when  we  were 
trying  to  make  it  as  good  as  gold." 

Speaking,  October  23,  at  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  to  a 
great  crowd  of  prosperous-looking  farmers,  he  expressed 
his  surprise  and  said  that  the  assembly  could  hardly 
be  made  up  of  farmers,  for  he  looked  in  vain  "for  the 
sad-eyed,  poorly -clad  men  covered  all  over  with  mort 
gages  and  Democratic  pity." 

Everywhere  it  was  the  same  story.  The  people 
turned  out  in  multitudes  to  hear  him,  and  with  serious 
argument  he  mingled  much  witty  banter  and  ridicule 
of  his  party  antagonists.  But  his  own  triumphant 
reelection  and  the  vast  crowds  were  no  index  of  the 
result.  The  McKinley  Tariff  bill  had  been  passed 
only  a  month  before  the  general  election.  At  once 
there  was  a  general  increase  in  prices,  and  especially 
in  prices  of  articles  in  common  use.  Shrewd  traders 
of  all  sorts  reaped  a  rich  harvest.  Everything  was  laid 
to  the  tariff,  whether  particular  duties  had  been 
changed  or  not,  and  when  election  day  came  around, 
the  people,  believing  that  they  had  been  robbed, 
voted  with  enthusiasm  for  the  Democratic  candi 
dates  for  Congress  and  gave  that  party  the  next 
House  by  a  rousing  majority. 

Under  the  somewhat  unpopular  feature  of  our  sys 
tem  by  which  a  House  that  has  just  been  repudiated 


THE   SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE   BILL    181 

at  the  polls  may  continue  to  legislate,  there  still  re 
mained  the  short  session  of  the  Fifty-first  Congress. 
Reed  as  the  leader  of  his  party  was  compelled,  while 
still  in  the  Chair,  to  endure  with  as  much  philosophy 
as  he  could  command  the  triumph  of  his  enemies.  And 
he  bore  himself  with  self-control  and  good  nature. 
His  party  antagonists  however  did  not  show  themselves 
sportsmanlike  winners  and  conducted  themselves  with 
a  good  deal  of  haughtiness.  Their  attitude  was  shown 
in  their  refusal  to  propose  or  vote  for  the  usual  per 
functory  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  Speaker,  which 
it  had  been  the  long-established  office  of  the  minority 
to  propose  at  the  end  of  each  Congress.  Either  no 
resolution  would  be  presented  or  it  must  be  presented 
by  a  Republican.  On  March  2,  1891,  Mr.  McKinley, 
the  Republican  floor-leader,  offered  the  resolution. 
Instead  of  permitting  its  adoption  by  the  ordinary 
voice  vote,  this  extraordinary  proceeding  was  made 
still  more  extraordinary  by  the  demand  by  Mr.  Mills, 
the  Democratic  leader,  for  the  yeas  and  nays.  The 
resolution  passed  by  156  to  118,  the  Democrats  gen 
erally  going  on  record  against  it.  On  the  passage  of 
the  resolution  Reed  made  the  following  response:  — 

After  two  long  and  stormy  sessions,  in  some  respects 
unparalleled  in  one  hundred  years,  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  Fifty-first  Congress  will  soon  pass  with 
completed  record  into  the  history  of  the  country  and  its 
works  will  follow  it.  What  we  have  done  is  in  large  manner 
political.  Whatever  is  political  rouses  the  sternest,  the  most 
turbulent,  the  most  unforgiving  passions  of  the  human  race. 
Political  action  can  never  be  justly  viewed  from  a  near 


182  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

standpoint.  Time  and  distance  are  needed  for  a  ripe  judg 
ment  and  the  verdict  of  history  is  the  only  verdict  worth 
recording.  To  state  in  language  which  would  seem  adequate 
the  achievements  of  this  House  would  not  be  suitable  to  this 
time  or  this  place.  ...  If  our  deeds  do  not  praise  us,  our 
words  cannot.  Confident  as  I  am  of  the  verdict  of  time  on 
what  we  have  done,  I  am  still  more  confident  that  the  high 
est  commendation  will  be  given  us  in  the  future,  not  for  what 
measures  we  have  passed,  valuable  as  they  are,  but  because 
we  have  taken  so  long  a  stride  in  the  direction  of  responsible 
government.  Having  demonstrated  to  the  people  that  those 
who  have  been  elected  to  do  their  will  can  do  it,  henceforth 
excuses  will  not  be  taken  for  performance,  and  government 
by  the  people  will  be  stronger  in  the  land. 

Towards  those  who  have  opposed  what  the  majority  of  the 
House  desired  we  can  have  no  unkindly  or  personal  feeling. 
Whoever  offers  battle  to  old  convictions  and  faiths  must 
expect  battle. 

During  this  Congress  Reed  was  invited  to  attend 
a  dinner  of  the  "Blue  Grass  Club"  which  he  declined 
in  the  following  letter:  — 

SPEAKER'S  ROOM,  WASHINGTON,  D.C. 

28  February,  1890. 
MY  DEAR  MB.  CARUTH:  — 

I  shall  not  accept  the  invitation  tendered  me  by  the  Blue 
Grass  Club.  The  reason  is  very  simple.  I  notice  that  Jay  F. 
Durham  is  President.  Now  Jay  F.  Durham  assured  me 
during  the  late  "disturbances"  that  if  they  had  me  in  Ken 
tucky  they  would  kill  me.  Knowing  the  said  Durham  to  be 
a  journalist,  his  declarations  to  me  import  absolute  verity. 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  killed,  especially  in  Kentucky  where  such 
an  event  is  too  common  to  attract  attention.  For  a  good 
man  to  die  anywhere  is  of  course  gain;  but  I  think  I  can 
make  more  by  dying  later  and  elsewhere. 

Yours  truly, 

T.  B.  REED. 


THE  SHERMAN  SILVER-PURCHASE  BILL    183 

For  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  opposition  Reed  found 
rich  compensation  in  the  loyal  friendship  of  his  Re 
publican  colleagues.  In  the  fierce  fighting  of  that 
Congress  they  stood  by  him  in  unbroken  ranks.  At  its 
close  they  asked  him  to  sit  for  a  portrait,  which  he 
consented  to  do,  and  it  was  presented  to  the  House 
of  Representatives.  It  was  painted  by  Sargent;  and 
although  he  was  probably  the  most  distinguished 
among  the  artists  whose  portraits  of  the  Speakers  hang 
in  the  House  lobby,  he  was  not  strikingly  successful  in 
his  portrait  of  Reed. 


CHAPTER  XV 

AGAIN  MINOEITY  LEADER  —  RELATIONS   WITH 
PRESIDENT   HARRISON 

THE  result  of  the  Congressional  elections  in  1890  was 
to  put  the  Democrats  very  strongly  in  control  of  the 
House,  and  to  distribute  again  the  political  control 
of  the  two  Houses  and  the  Presidency,  so  that  neither 
party  could  be  held  responsible  for  legislation.  Crisp 
was  elected  Speaker.  Reed  was  nominated  for  that 
office  by  his  party,  and  became  minority  leader.  He 
led  a  very  small  army,  and  he  affectionately  said  of 
its  members  that  "they  behaved  with  gentleness  and 
modesty,  partly  because  they  were  very  good  men  and 
partly  because  there  were  very  few  of  them."  A  vic 
tory  for  the  Democrats  was  foreshadowed  in  the 
next  presidential  election,  and  that  party  sought  to 
make  the  character  of  its  control  of  the  House  as  ap 
pealing  as  possible  to  the  country. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Cleve 
land,  who  was  sternly  in  favor  of  the  gold  standard, 
against  the  majority  of  his  party  in  the  House,  a  con 
siderable  minority  of  the  Democratic  members  arrayed 
themselves  against  the  silver  agitation.  Mr.  Williams 
of  Massachusetts  denounced  the  movement  for  the 
free  coinage  of  silver  as  a  proposition  for  national  bank 
ruptcy  and  to  pay  seventy  cents  on  the  dollar.  He 


AGAIN  MINORITY  LEADER  185 

declared  that  the  Democrats  who  favored  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  were  attempting  to  make  a  Farmers' 
Alliance  party  out  of  the  Democratic  party.  A  vote 
had  been  taken  upon  which  seventy  Democrats  had 
voted  against  free  coinage.  "These  men,"  declared 
Williams,  "are  the  Democrats  of  this  House.  [Great 
laughter.]  Yes,  you  may  laugh.  Bad  consciences  require 
some  consolation." 

Reed  skillfully  fomented  this  difference.  He  saw 
that  at  the  moment  the  line  of  cleavage  in  the  enor 
mous  majority  arrayed  against  him  was  upon  the 
question  of  the  money  standard.  Upon  that  question 
his  position  and  that  of  Mr.  Cleveland  were  identical. 

The  President-elect  wished  to  have  the  silver-pur 
chase  clause  of  the  so-called  Sherman  law  repealed 
before  he  came  into  office,  and  a  repeal  bill  was  intro 
duced  near  the  end  of  the  Fifty-second  Congress.  Mr. 
Bryan  opposed  the  rule  for  its  consideration  in  an  im 
passioned  speech  in  which  he  lamented  the  attitude 
of  his  party  associates  who  favored  it.  Reed  expressed 
a  mock  sympathy  with  Bryan,  who,  he  said,  had 

been  in  the  habit  of  listening  to  the  shoutings  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  from  the  highest  citizen  to  the  lowest  in  favor  of 
"free  silver,"  and  what  they  call  the  "good  of  the  people." 
Well,  he  finds  now  that,  in  power,  even  the  Democratic 
party  has  got  to  obey  the  everlasting  laws  of  common  sense. 
[Laughter.]  When  they  are  in  the  minority  they  can  throw 
their  limbs  about  in  all  sorts  of  contortions;  they  can  look 
any  way  that  they  think  beautiful.  But  when  they  come 
into  power,  they  have  got  to  act  according  to  the  eternal 
verities  and  that  is  going  to  be  a  great  shock  to  him  on  every 
occasion.  [Renewed  laughter.]  He  is  going  to  see  the  leader 


186  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

of  the  House  quail  on  the  subject  of  free  trade.  He  is  going  to 
see  "patriots"  all  around  him  operating  as  some  of  them  are 
going  to  operate  to-day,  and  I  beg  of  him  to  summon  to  his 
assistance  that  stoicism  which  his  countenance  indicates,  in 
order  to  help  him  in  his  very  mournful  future.  [Laughter  and 
applause.] 

Reed  played  the  part  of  minority  leader  after  his 
old  style,  a  little  more  kindly  perhaps,  but  wittily 
and  upon  occasion  with  tremendous  force  of  attack. 
He  would  sometimes  make  off-hand  speeches  under 
the  rules  of  informal  debate  on  the  appropriation  bills, 
and  he  would  entertain  both  sides  of  the  House  with 
his  philosophical  suggestions.  His  speech  on  a  pro 
posed  appropriation  for  educating  the  Indians  affords 
a  good  example  of  his  manner  in  debates  of  that  char 
acter.  He  began  with  the  assumption  that  the  Indian 
had  very  many  human  characteristics.  One  thing 
that  was  most  apparent  in  the  human  race  was  the  de 
termination  that  nobody  should  get  very  much  ahead 
of  the  average. 

If  you  actually  wish  to  advance  any  set  of  people  you  can 
not  do  it  by  educating  one  here  and  there,  sporadically;  you 
must  make  all  the  rest  come  forward  or  they  will  not  permit 
some  one  to  go  ahead. 

He  could  easily  believe  the  stories  that  educated 
Indians  sank  back  to  the  "blanket"  condition  of  their 
tribes  after  they  had  returned  to  their  savage  homes, 
"because  among  Indians  just  as  among  white  men 
public  opinion,  public  sentiment,  reigns  supreme." 
The  Indians  could  never  be  absorbed  by  the  white 


AGAIN  MINORITY  LEADER  187 

race  unless  the  great  gulf  of  ignorance  was  bridged 
over  and 

the  bridge  has  got  to  be  wide  enough  to  take  in  the  whole 
Indian  race  in  this  country.  We  can  never  be  united  by  little 
bridges  that  will  bring  an  occasional  Indian  in  contact  with 
us.  —  Just  as  surely  as  public  sentiment  works  among  white 
men,  just  so  surely  public  sentiment  works  among  Indians; 
and  a  part  of  that  public  sentiment  is  the  good  old-fashioned 
human  passion,  envy.  We  hate  to  see  people  standing  too 
much  above  ourselves.  You  ought  to  take  all  the  Indians 
and  educate  them.  What  are  you  proposing  to  do?  You  are 
proposing  to  stop  in  mid-career. 

During  the  first  session  of  this  Congress  the  prac 
tical  political  question  that  most  concerned  the  Re 
publicans  related  to  the  candidate  to  be  nominated  for 
the  presidency.  General  Harrison  was  President.  He 
was  an  extremely  able  lawyer.  In  point  of  intellectual 
capacity  he  has  probably  not  been  surpassed  by  any 
president  since  the  Civil  War.  But  he  was  cold  and 
without  personal  magnetism.  He  had  in  very  slight 
degree  the  faculty  for  making  new  friends,  and  indeed 
he  chilled  his  old  friends  with  an  appearance  of  indiffer 
ence  which  was  probably  only  apparent  but  was  as  in 
jurious  in  its  effect  upon  his  political  fortunes  as  if  it 
had  been  genuine. 

The  most  powerful  political  office  in  Reed's  district 
was  the  collectorship  of  Portland.  He  never  displayed 
the  slightest  disposition  to  use  the  offices  in  his  own 
interest,  but  he  was  naturally  concerned  not  to  have 
so  influential  an  office  in  his  own  home  put  in  hostile 
control.  His  position  as  the  representative  of  Portland 


188  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

and  leader  of  his  party  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
made  it  in  the  highest  degree  proper,  according  to  the 
political  ethics  of  that  time,  that  his  opinion  upon  the 
question  should  be  received  with  much  weight.  He 
acquainted  the  President  with  his  views  on  the  subject. 
Reed  expressed  his  disgust  over  the  appointment  when 
it  was  finally  made,  in  the  following  characteristic 
fashion:  "I  had  but  two  enemies  in  Maine,  and  one 
of  them  Harrison  pardoned  out  of  the  penitentiary 
and  the  other  he  appointed  collector  of  Portland." 

As  the  sequel  of  the  ensuing  presidential  election 
proved,  there  was  much  indifference  on  both  sides. 
The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  from  Reed  to 
Charles  Fairchild  of  Boston  will  serve  to  show  his  view 
of  the  subject:  — 

Blaine  is  out  and  we  are  face  to  face  with  a  Siberian  soli 
tude.  I  don't  know  what  will  happen  but  I  beg  to  say  to  you 
as  an  influential  Massachusetts  man  that  if  any  ice  chest  is 
to  hold  our  fortunes  you  must  not  ask  me  to  come  to  Massa 
chusetts  during  the  campaign  if  you  send  a  delegation  which 
is  for  the  said  ice  chest.  Don't  forget  this  and  find  fault  with 
me.  I  have  spent  my  life  taking  political  pills  but  my  powers 
of  deglutition  are  after  all  limited.  B.  Harrison  would  be 
dead  to  start  with. 

A  similar  opinion,  but  applied  to  both  Cleveland  and 
Harrison,  appears  in  a  letter  from  Colonel  Ingersoll  to 
Reed:  — 

July  30,  1892. 
MY  DEAR  FRIEND:  — 

All  the  Ingersolls,  Browns  and  Farrells  enjoyed  to  the 
Utmost  that  article  of  yours  on  the  two  Congresses.  It  is 
Unanswerable,  admirable  in  every  way,  full  of  sense,  logic 


AGAIN  MINORITY  LEADER  189 

and  facts,  and  it  has  wit  enough,  so  that  it  can  safely  be 
"warranted  to  keep  in  any  climate."  You  have  painted 
Holman's  portrait  to  perfection.  I  know  exactly  how  he 
looked  at  that  "Solemn  moment."  The  article  should  be 
used  as  a  campaign  document  —  if  there  is  to  be  a  cam 
paign. 

At  present  each  party  would  like  to  find  some  way  to  beat 
the  candidate  of  the  other  without  electing  its  own. 

Long  life  to  you. 

Yours  always, 

R.  G.  INGERSOLL. 

The  reference  in  Colonel  Ingersoll's  letter  was  to  an 
article  by  Reed  in  the  "North  American  Review"  of 
July,  1892,  comparing  the  Houses  of  the  Fifty-first 
and  Fifty-second  Congresses.  It  contained  a  brilliant 
attack  on  the  Democratic  House,  and  is  well  worth 
reading  to-day.  Referring  to  the  character  of  the 
Democratic  majority,  he  said  that  it  presented  "the 
dead  level  of  a  Dutch  landscape,  with  all  its  windmills, 
but  without  a  trace  of  its  beauty  and  fertility."  Reed 
was  present  at  the  Republican  National  Convention 
at  Minneapolis,  and  his  appearance  was  made  the 
occasion  of  the  most  spontaneous  ovation  that  the 
Convention  witnessed.  Harrison  was  nominated  and 
after  a  campaign  spiritless  on  both  sides,  Cleveland 
was  elected  President  in  a  very  light  vote. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  session,  Reed,  notwithstand 
ing  the  attitude  of  the  minority  towards  him  in  the 
preceding  Congress,  proposed  on  behalf  of  his  party 
associates  the  customary  resolution  of  thanks  to  the 
Speaker.  His  speech  in  support  of  the  resolution  how 
ever  showed  that  he  had  not  forgotten  the  treatment 


190  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

he  had  received.  He  declared  that  the  Speakership  was 
a  very  high  office.  No  attack  open  or  covert  could  be 
made  upon  it  "without  leaving  a  legacy  of  disorder," 
not  because  the  Speaker  himself  was  sacred  but  be 
cause  he  embodied  the  House  and  its  dignity  and  power. 

If  at  any  time,  in  the  heat  of  passion,  action  has  been  taken 
which  has  been  thus  inimical  to  the  public  good  and  the  pub 
lic  order,  let  us  leave  to  those  who  so  acted  the  honor  or  the 
shame,  and  in  no  way  give  to  their  example  the  flattery  of  an 
imitation.  .  .  .  Therefore,  placing  patriotism  above  partisan 
ship,  placing  duty  above  even  a  just  resentment,  notwith 
standing  we  do  not  approve  of  the  parliamentary  law  of  the 
Speaker  and  his  associates  and  deem  that  the  system  reestab 
lished  is  undemocratic  and  unwise,  nevertheless  by  offering 
the  customary  resolution,  we  tender  to  the  Speaker  of  this 
House  the  expression  of  our  belief  that  he,  like  all  his  prede 
cessors,  has  performed  the  trying  duties  of  his  office  with 
upright  intention  and  honorable  purpose. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SILVER-PURCHASE  REPEAL 

THE  election  of  1892  had  resulted  disastrously  for  the 
Republicans  and  the  stalemate  in  the  control  of  the 
government  was  broken.  With  Mr.  Cleveland  as  Pres 
ident,  there  were  chosen  a  Democratic  House  and  Sen 
ate,  although  the  latter  body  was  controlled  by  that 
party  by  a  very  slender  majority.  The  Republicans 
however  had  gained  forty  seats  in  the  House,  and 
when  they  nominated  Reed  as  their  candidate  for 
Speaker  he  became  the  leader  of  a  strong  and  deter 
mined  minority.  At  no  time  in  his  career  did  he  show 
to  better  advantage  as  a  parliamentary  fighter  than 
in  this  Congress.  He  was  indeed  only  the  leader  of  the 
minority,  and  he  cannot  be  compared  with  himself  as 
the  floor-leader  of  the  majority  because  he  never  held 
that  position.  Whenever  he  was  leader  of  the  majority 
party,  it  made  him  the  Speaker  of  the  House.  He  was 
in  his  physical  and  intellectual  prime,  and  his  experi 
ence,  running  through  sixteen  years  on  the  floor  and  in 
the  Chair,  had  brought  about  a  development  of  his  own 
powers  and  given  him  a  command  of  the  procedure  of 
the  House  which  made  him  a  dangerous  antagonist. 

The  President  had  summoned  Congress  to  meet  in 
extraordinary  session  on  August  7,  1893,  to  repeal 
the  so-called  Sherman  Silver  law.  That  was  the  first 


192  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

subject  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  House.  The 
Silver  Purchase  Act  of  1890  did  not  have  the  hoped-for 
effect  of  sustaining  the  bullion  value  of  the  silver  dollar. 
On  the  other  hand,  after  a  temporary  advance,  the  price 
of  silver  had  gone  steadily  down.  During  the  three 
years  that  the  act  had  been  in  force  the  Treasury  had 
invested  more  than  $140,000,000  in  silver  bullion  and 
had  issued  treasury  notes  in  payment,  which  were  a 
charge  upon  the  gold  reserve.  But  the  silver  bullion  lay 
an  uncoined  and  inert  mass  in  the  vaults  of  the  Treas 
ury,  and  although  its  acquirement  had  vastly  increased 
the  gold  obligations  of  the  government  it  did  not  aug 
ment  by  a  particle  the  ability  of  the  government  to 
meet  them.  On  the  slender  gold  reserve  of  $100,000,000 
there  was  thrown  the  burden,  not  merely  of  redeeming 
more  than  three  times  that  amount  in  greenbacks, 
but  of  redeeming  also  the  treasury  notes  issued  in  pay 
ment  for  the  silver  and  of  maintaining  at  a  parity  with 
gold  some  hundreds  of  millions  of  light-weight  silver 
dollars. 

As  a  result  the  Treasury  had  fallen  into  a  very  critical 
condition.  There  was  a  genuine  fear  that  the  govern 
ment  could  not  maintain  gold  payments.  Not  merely 
was  the  condition  of  the  Treasury  serious  but  the  finan 
cial  condition  of  the  country  speedily  became  appall 
ing.  Business  slackened;  securities  became  depressed; 
American  stocks  and  bonds  held  abroad  were  sold  in 
our  markets  and  the  exportation  of  their  purchase- 
price  still  further  reduced  the  stock  of  gold  in  the 
country ;  banks  suspended  payment,  railroad  after  rail- 


SILVER-PURCHASE  REPEAL  193 

road  went  into  the  hands  of  receivers,  and  there  were 
witnessed  all  the  evidences  of  an  acute  financial  crisis. 

The  Democratic  platform  on  which  Cleveland  was 
elected  had  declared  for  a  radical  reduction  of  the 
tariff.  It  was  asserted  by  a  large  section  of  the  Repub 
licans  that  the  promise  of  what  was  called  free  trade, 
ratified  as  it  had  been  at  the  election,  was  responsible 
for  the  derangement  of  industrial  and  financial  condi 
tions.  Undoubtedly  the  threat  of  radical  reductions 
of  the  tariff  had  imposed  caution  on  prudent  manu 
facturers  and  caused  them  to  prepare  for  possibly 
rough  weather  by  taking  in  sail;  but  the  condition  of 
the  currency  was  so  menacing  that  it  is  difficult  to  be 
lieve  that  the  tariff  was  the  only  or  indeed  the  chief 
cause. 

It  was  a  matter  of  much  doubt  whether  the  Presi 
dent  could  secure  the  desired  repeal.  Within  a  month 
before  his  inauguration  a  rule  for  the  consideration  of 
a  repeal  bill  had  been  defeated  in  the  House,  a  large 
majority  of  the  Democrats  voting  against  it.  Would  it 
meet  a  more  friendly  reception  from  his  party  at  the 
extraordinary  session?  It  seemed  likely  that  the  bal 
ance  of  power  would  be  held  by  the  Republicans.  Was 
there  danger  that,  in  order  to  defeat  the  President  and 
embarrass  his  administration,  they  would  "play  poli 
tics"?  Whatever  doubt  existed  upon  that  subject 
was  speedily  dispelled.  It  became  known  that  Reed 
stood  firmly  with  the  President.  The  Purchase  Act, 
it  is  true,  had  been  passed  during  his  Speakership, 
but  he  had  consented  to  it,  not  because  he  favored  it 


194  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

as  a  proposition  standing  by  itself,  but  because  he  be 
lieved  it  necessary  in  order  to  prevent  something  he 
regarded  as  disastrous  in  the  extreme.  To  his  mind 
the  practical  alternatives  were  the  passage  of  the  pur 
chase  bill  or  the  passage  of  a  bill  for  free  coinage.  Be 
tween  those  alternatives  he  could  not  hesitate.  But  the 
situation  was  very  different  at  the  special  session.  There 
was  presented  only  the  naked  question  of  repeal,  and 
upon  that  question  he  brought  his  powerful  aid  to  the 
support  of  the  President. 

The  debate  that  ensued  upon  the  introduction  of  the 
bill  was  memorable  in  point  of  ability,  and  leading 
orators  in  the  two  parties  could  be  found  contending 
upon  either  side. 

Reed  made  the  principal  speech  for  the  Republicans, 
and  for  nearly  two  hours  he  argued  for  repeal.  The 
Sherman  Act,  he  said,  had  no  defenders. 

The  silver  men,  although  they  were  glad  to  get  it,  stood 
prepared  to  declare  that  it  was  not  what  they  wanted. 
Those  who  had  yielded  to  the  demand  for  that  act  in  the 
earnest  hope  that  what  they  desired  might  turn  out  to  be 
just  and  right  were  in  no  condition  to  defend  it  at  all.  It 
had  not  answered  their  hopes.  Wherever  there  is  an  attack 
upon  one  side  and  no  defence  on  the  other,  there  is  sure  to  be 
a  shining  victory. 

Referring  to  the  "crime  of  1873,"  which  was  the 
alleged  stealthy  demonetization  of  silver,  he  said  he  was 
amazed  that  the  charge  had  lived  so  long. 

Why  I  myself  have  heard  a  man  —  in  this  very  House  of 
Representatives  —  denounce  the  demonetization  of  silver  as 
stealthy  and  "fiendish,"  and  he  himself  introduced  the  bill 
on  the  floor  of  this  House,  and  squarely  and  openly  declared 


SILVER-PURCHASE  REPEAL  195 

that  a  double  standard  was  impossible,  and  that  the  gold 
standard  was  the  only  thing  we  could  possibly  have.  [Laugh 
ter  and  applause.] 

It  had  been  answered  so  often  that  he  should  not 
burden  his  speech  with  the  proofs. 

I  shall  simply  content  myself  with  saying  that  there  never 
was  a  more  open,  straightforward  discussion  since  the  begin 
ning  of  time  than  that  by  which  silver  was  demonetized.  .  .  . 
What  then  is  the  pathway  of  duty?  The  unconditional  re 
peal.  That  will  either  give  relief  or  not.  If  not  then  we  must 
try  something  else  and  the  sooner  the  better.  ...  It  is  such 
a  pity  that  we  had  to  waste  so  much  time  in  this  weary  wel 
ter  of  talk. 

We  stand  in  a  very  peculiar  position,  we  Republicans, 
to-day.  [Laughter.]  The  representative  of  the  Democratic 
party  just  chosen  President  of  the  United  States  finds  him 
self  powerless  in  his  first  great  recommendation  to  his  own 
party.  Were  he  left  to  their  tender  mercies  [laughter],  the 
country  would  witness  the  spectacle  of  the  President  of  its 
choice  overthrown  by  the  party  charged  with  this  country's 
government.  What  wonder  then  that  he  appeals  to  the  pa 
triotism  of  another  party  whose  patriotism  has  never  been 
appealed  to  in  vain.  [Applause  on  the  Republican  side.] 
Never,  I  say,  in  vain.  The  proudest  part  of  the  proud 
record  of  the  Republican  party  has  been  its  steadfast  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  of  sound  finance.  When  this  country  was 
tempted  to  pay  its  bonds  in  depreciated  money,  the  Repub 
lican  party  responded  with  loud  acclaim  to  that  noble  senti 
ment  of  General  Hawley  that  every  bond  was  as  sacred  as 
a  soldier's  grave.  It  cost  us  hard  fighting  and  sore  struggle, 
but  the  credit  of  this  country  has  no  superior  in  the  world. 
[Applause  on  the  Republican  side]  When  the  same  argu 
ments  heard  to-day  were  heard  fifteen  years  ago,  sounding 
the  praises  of  a  depreciated  curren«y  and  proclaiming  the 
glories  of  fiat  money,  the  party  of  Abraham  Lincoln  marched 
steadily  towards  specie  payments  and  prosperity.  [Ap 
plause.]  What  we  were  in  our  days  of  victory,  the  same  are 


196  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

we  in  our  days  of  defeat.  Champions  of  true  and  solid 
finance.  [Applause.]  And  when  the  time  comes,  as  it  surely 
will  come,  for  us  to  lead  this  land  back  to  those  paths  of 
prosperity  and  fame  which  were  trodden  under  Republican 
rule  for  so  many  years,  we  shall  take  back  with  us  our  an 
cient  glory  undimmed  by  adversity;  our  ancient  honor  un 
sullied  by  defeat.  [Prolonged  applause  on  the  floor  and  in  the 
galleries.] 

A  very  large  majority  of  the  Republicans  voted  for 
the  repeal  and  it  passed  by  a  great  majority. 

Mr.  Cleveland  displayed  a  resolute  courage  in  press 
ing  the  measure,  but  he  achieved  a  large  measure  of 
unpopularity  with  his  party,  which  was  in  favor  of 
free  coinage  as  was  afterward  clearly  shown.  That 
his  efforts  prevented  the  currency  of  the  country  from 
falling  speedily  to  the  silver  standard  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  The  contest  was  not  finally  won.  Other  battles 
remained  to  be  fought.  But  it  would  have  been  lost 
but  for  the  Silver-Purchase  repeal.  And  those  who 
believe  that  incalculable  damage  would  have  come 
upon  the  country  by  the  depreciation  of  its  currency 
and  its  departure  from  the  established  standard  of  the 
civilized  world,  will  hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the 
patriotic  self-sacrifice  and  the  stern  and  heroic  courage 
of  Grover  Cleveland. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   WILSON   BILL 

THE  next  important  measure  in  the  Democratic  pro 
gramme  was  the  repeal  of  the  national  election  law, 
which  provided  for  the  presence  of  United  States  offi 
cers  at  the  polls  at  national  elections.  That  measure 
had  from  its  first  enactment  been  unpopular  with  the 
Democratic  party  and  it  was  but  natural,  when  that 
party  succeeded  to  the  control  of  the  government,  that 
the  law  should  be  repealed.  Reed  and  his  party  sup 
ported  the  law.  Among  all  the  various  arguments  put 
forward  against  repeal  the  strongest  was  based  upon 
the  common  interest  of  all  parts  of  the  country  in  hon 
est  national  elections.  An  election  of  a  governor  or  a 
legislature  in  South  Carolina  was  a  concern  of  the 
people  of  that  state,  and  the  principle  of  home  rule 
would  ordinarily  require  that  they  should  be  per 
mitted  to  conduct  the  election  in  their  own  way.  But 
an  election  of  members  of  Congress  and  of  presiden 
tial  electors  was  a  common  concern  of  the  whole  coun 
try.  Violence  and  fraud  in  one  state  would  equally 
affect  the  remotest  states  of  the  Union.  A  man  in 
Florida  or  Texas  would  have  no  ground  of  complaint 
if  Maine  or  Oregon  should  fairly  give  the  decisive  votes 
which  should  establish  in  the  government  of  the  na 
tion  a  system  of  policies  in  which  he  did  not  believe. 


198  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

But  he  would  have  the  strongest  ground  of  complaint 
if  the  result  in  the  latter  states  should  be  brought 
about  by  violence  and  fraud.  The  right  to  regulate  the 
choice  of  agencies  of  the  national  government  inhered 
in  the  very  idea  of  nationality. 

The  arguments  against  repeal,  however  valid  they 
may  have  been,  did  not  avail  to  save  the  law,  and  it 
was  repealed  at  the  special  session,  along  with  the 
silver  law. 

The  third  great  party  measure  to  be  brought  forward 
was  the  reduction  of  the  tariff.  The  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  was  presided  over  by  William  L.  Wilson 
of  West  Virginia,  a  man  of  engaging  personality  and 
an  orator  of  no  mean  quality.  He  had  associated  with 
him  in  the  committee  some  of  the  strongest  men  in  his 
party,  among  them  Bryan,  Cockran,  Turner,  and  Mc- 
Millin.  The  bill  was  reported  to  the  House  very  early 
in  the  December  session.  It  was  not  an  extreme  meas 
ure  except  in  respect  to  a  comparatively  small  number 
of  duties. 

A  long  debate  ensued  in  Committee  of  the  Whole, 
in  which  Reed  frequently  took  part  in  short  speeches 
covering  with  ridicule  the  different  paragraphs  of 
the  bill  as  they  came  up  for  amendment.  His  great 
contribution  to  the  debate  was  made  February  1, 
1894,  when  he  closed  for  the  Republicans.  On  that 
day  the  scene  in  the  House  of  Representatives  was  an 
extraordinary  one.  The  galleries  were  crowded  to  suf 
focation,  even  the  corridors  of  the  Capitol  were  packed, 
and  by  common  consent  the  unusual  course  was  taken 


THOMAS   B.    REED,  1894 


THE  WILSON  BILL  199 

of  admitting  the  families  and  friends  of  members  to 
vacant  places  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  Every  inch  of 
room  was  occupied  by  members  and  senators,  and  by 
ladies,  many  of  whom  occupied  the  seats  of  members. 
It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  vast  hall  had 
ever  before  presented  so  brilliant  a  spectacle. 

The  burden  of  closing  the  debate  for  the  Republicans 
fell  to  Reed  alone;  that  for  the  Democrats  was  divided 
between  the  Speaker,  who  left  the  Chair,  and  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means. 
Reed  spoke  first  and  was  followed  by  the  Speaker  and 
by  Wilson.  The  occasion  was  an  inspiring  one  to  Reed. 
His  heroic  figure  fitted  well  into  the  surroundings  and 
as  he  swept  steadily  and  majestically  into  his  argu 
ment  his  hold  upon  his  audience  constantly  strength 
ened,  and  when  he  took  his  seat,  after  speaking  an 
hour  and  a  half,  the  loud  cheers  that  died  away  only 
to  begin  again  afforded  a  deserved  tribute  to  the  great 
ness  of  his  effort. 

The  speech  will  lose  by  condensation,  and  since  it 
cannot  be  reproduced  here  in  its  entirety,  perhaps  the 
best  remaining  test  of  its  quality  may  be  afforded  by 
extracts  from  it  which  may  fairly  serve  as  examples 
of  the  whole. 

The  history  of  protection  has  been  most  remarkable. 
Fifty  years  ago  the  question  seemed  to  be  closed.  Great 
Britain  had  adopted  free  trade,  the  United  States  had  started 
in  the  same  direction,  and  the  whole  world  seemed  about 
to  follow.  To-day  the  entire  situation  seems  to  be  reversed. 
The  whole  civilized  world  except  Great  Britain  has  become 
protectionist,  and  the  very  year  last  passed  has  witnessed  the 


200  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

desertion  of  English  principles  by  the  last  English  colony 
which  held  out.  This  has  been  done  in  defiance  of  the 
opinions  of  every  political  economist  in  England  who  wrote 
prior  to  1850,  and  of  most  of  those  who  have  written 
since. 

When  you  add  to  this  that  the  arguments  against  it  have 
seemed  so  clear  and  simple  that  every  schoolboy  can  com 
prehend  them  and  every  patriot  with  suitable  Jungs  could 
fill  the  atmosphere  with  the  catchwords  [laughter],  the 
wonder  increases  that  in  every  country  it  should  still  flourish 
and  maintain  its  vigor.  Ten  years  ago  it  was  equally  true  at 
one  and  the  same  time  that  every  boy  who  graduated  from 
college  graduated  a  free  trader  and  that  every  one  of  them 
who  afterward  became  a  producer  or  distributor  of  our  goods 
became  also  a  protectionist.  .  .  . 

I  have  here  an  article  in  the  "Fortnightly  Review," 
wherein  Mr.  J.  Stephen  Jeans,  a  British  free-trade  writer, 
in  December,  1892,  declared  that  "America  has  for  many 
years  enjoyed  an  amazing  degree  of  prosperity,  so  much  so 
indeed  that  to  use  the  eloquent  words  of  Edmund  Burke, 
'Generalities  which  in  all  other  cases  are  apt  to  heighten  and 
raise  the  subject  have  here  a  tendency  to  sink  it.  Fiction 
lags  after  truth,  invention  is  unfruitful,  and  imagination 
cold  and  barren.'" 

When  I  read  these  words  I  recalled  a  scene  in  this  House, 
and  said  how  differently  men  look  at  the  same  things.  Here 
is  a  cool-blooded  Englishman,  who,  in  talking  of  the  "not 
unreasonable  hopes"  —I  use  his  very  words  —  which  his 
countrymen  entertain,  "that  the  greatest  market  in  the 
world  and  probably  in  the  world's  history  is  once  again  to  be 
found  lying  at  the  feet  of  British  industry  and  commerce," 
declares  that  "America  has  for  many  years  enjoyed  an 
amazing  degree  of  prosperity,  so  much  so,  indeed,"  that  he 
has  to  use  the  words  of  Burke  to  say  that  he  cannot  even 
describe  it.  And  yet,  in  this  very  hall  a  member  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  himself  a  countryman  of 
Edmund  Burke  and  whose  wonderful  eloquence  moved  this 
assembly  as  I  never  saw  it  moved  before,  allowed  himself, 
amid  "laughter  and  applause  on  the  Democratic  side,"  to 


THE  WILSON  BILL  201 

compare  this  amazing  prosperity  to  a  " prolonged  debauch,'* 
from  which  the  country  could  rescue  itself  only  by  the  free 
use  of  the  committee's  dilution  of  the  original  beverage. 
[Laughter.]  It  seems,  however,  almost  a  desecration  to  put 
the  facts  over  against  the  figure  of  speech.  .  .  . 

Was  that  crusade  the  same  as  is  waged  here  to-day?  Are 
the  gentlemen  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  legit 
imate  successors  of  Bright  and  Cobden  and  the  Anti-Corn- 
Law  League?  Not  the  least  in  the  world.  That  was  a  fight 
by  the  manufacturers.  This  is  a  fight  against  the  manu 
facturers.  The  manufacturers  then  desired  no  protection 
whatever.  Turn  over  this  big  volume  of  Cobden's  speeches 
until  you  come  to  the  twentieth  speech,  seven  years  after  he 
began;  you  will  find  hardly  one  allusion  to  protective  duties 
to  manufacturers,  and  even  in  the  twentieth  speech  they  are 
only  alluded  to  to  reiterate  the  declaration  made  in  1838 
when  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League  began,  that  all  duties  were 
to  be  abolished  so  as  to  make  food  cheaper.  [Applause  on  the 
Democratic  side.]  I  am  glad  to  see  that  my  Democratic 
friends  recognize  a  bit  of  truth,  but  I  am  afraid  it  is  by  mis 
take.  It  so  happens,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  corn  laws  were  not,  as 
these  Democrats  in  their  ignorance  imagine,  for  the  protec 
tion  of  the  farmer.  [Laughter.]  What  Cobden  was  fighting 
was  an  odious  law  enacted  to  enhance  the  price  of  bread, 
for  the  benefit,  not  of  the  farmer,  but  of  the  aristocratic 
owner  of  land.  Workingmen  were  clamoring  for  increase  of 
pay.  The  manufacturers  knew  that  decrease  in  the  price  of 
wheat  was  equivalent  to  higher  pay.  .  .  . 

The  men  who  made  the  fight  were  not  philanthropists  or 
saints.  They  were  good,  honest,  selfish  men,  struggling  for 
their  own  interests,  and  never  lost  sight  of  them.  Down  to 
their  latest  day  they  resisted  lesser  hours  of  labor,  and  were 
deaf  to  all  improvements  which  led  to  the  elevation  of  the 
working  classes.  They  held  firmly  to  the  doctrine  that  "as 
wages  fall  profits  rise."  .  .  . 

But  all  these  questions  of  wages  are  to  be  met,  says  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  (Mr.  Cockran) ,  by  our  superior 
civilization,  and  he  accuses  me  of  "confessing  that  civiliza 
tion  at  the  highest  level  is  incapable  of  meeting  the  compe- 


202  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

tition  of  civilization  at  its  lowest  level!"  [Laughter  on  the 
Democratic  side.] 

Now  it  is  a  great  truth  that  civilization  can  successfully 
meet  barbarism,  but  it  must  do  it  with  brains  and  not  with 
rhetoric.  How  often  have  I  heard  this  and  similar  eloquent 
outbursts  about  our  superiority,  and  therefore  inevitable 
conquest  of  the  inferior.  Survival  of  the  superior!  That  is 
not  the  way  the  naturalist  put  it.  "Survival  of  the  fittest " 
was  his  expression;  survival  of  the  fittest  to  survive,  not 
the  superior,  not  the  loveliest,  not  the  most  intellectual,  but 
the  one  who  fitted  best  into  the  surroundings.  Compare  the 
strong  Bull  of  Bashan  with  a  salt-water  smelt.  Who  doubts 
the  superiority  of  the  bull?  Yet,  if  you  drop  them  both  into 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  I  will  take  my  chances  with  the  smelt. 
[Laughter.]  A  little  tomtit,  insignificant  as  a  bit  of  dust  in  the 
balance,  cannot  compare  with  the  domestic  swan  either  in 
grace,  beauty,  or  power.  Yet,  if  both  were  dropped  from 
a  balloon  hung  high  in  air,  I  would  rather  be  the  insignificant 
tomtit  than  the  graceful  swan.  If  I  had  a  job  to  dig  on  a  rail 
way,  the  competitor  for  that  job  whom  I  should  fear  would 
not  be  my  friend  from  New  York  (Mr.  Cockran)  [laughter], 
but  some  child  of  sunny  Italy  so  newly  imported  that  he  had 
not  grown  up  to  the  wages  of  this  adopted  country.  .  .  . 

Why  did  the  working  people  of  California  object  to  the 
Chinese?  Because  they  knew  that  if  they  swarmed  here  in 
sufficient  numbers  the  law  of  wages  would  make  our  own 
wages  impossible.  Had  the  Chinese  had  the  same  wants,  and 
been  therefore  forced  to  demand  the  same  wages,  they  could 
have  worshiped  their  ancestors  here  without  let  or  hindrance. 
It  was  just  because  the  higher  civilization  could  not  contend 
on  a  free  field  with  the  lower  that  the  higher  civilization  had 
to  put  brains  into  the  scale  and  protect  itself.  .  .  . 

Let  me  restate  this:  Men  in  America  demand  high  and 
higher  wages  because  their  surroundings  erect  what  used  to 
be  luxuries  into  necessities.  Men  who  come  here  are  soon 
affected  by  these  same  surroundings  and  are  soon  under 
the  same  necessities.  But  Chinamen,  because  they  sequester 
themselves  from  these  surroundings,  and  bales  of  goods, 
because  they  cannot  have  the  labor  in  them  subjected  to  our 


THE  WILSON  BILL  203 

influences,  ought  to  be  under  the  restriction  of  law.  I  do  not 
mean  to  make  the  comparison  go  on  all  fours  and  have  the 
goods  prohibited  like  the  Chinese.  I  only  meant  to  convey 
an  idea.  .  .  . 

To  hear  the  discussions  in  Congress  you  would  suppose 
that  invention  dropped  from  Heaven  like  manna  to  the 
Jews.  [Laughter.]  You  would  suppose  that  James  Watt 
reached  out  into  the  darkness  and  pulled  back  a  steam- 
engine.  It  was  not  so.  All  invention  is  the  product  of  neces 
sities  and  of  pressure.  When  the  boy  who  wanted  to  go  off  to 
play  so  rigged  the  stopcocks  that  the  engine  went  itself,  he 
was  not  only  a  true  inventor,  but  he  had  the  same  motive 
—  personal  advantage  —  that  all  inventors  have,  and  like 
them  was  urged  on  by  business  necessities.  .  .  . 

As  a  further  proof  that  invention  is  born  of  necessity,  tell 
me  why  great  inventions  never  come  until  the  world  is  in 
such  shape  as  to  enjoy  them?  What  would  the  Crusaders 
have  done  with  railroads?  There  was  not  money  enough  in 
the  world,  or  travel,  or  merchandise,  to  keep  them  going  a 
week.  [Laughter.]  .  .  . 

Therefore  I  say  that  the  great  forces  of  nature  and  the 
wisest  inventions  are  alike  unprofitable  except  for  a  large 
consumption.  Hence,  large  consumption  is  at  the  basis  of 
saving  in  manufacture,  and  hence  high  wages  contribute 
their  share  to  progress.  If  you  once  accept  the  idea  that 
necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  instead  of  regarding 
invention  as  coming  from  Heaven  knows  where,  you  can  see 
how  high  wages  stimulate  it.  ... 

Our  laws  have  invited  money  and  men,  and  we  have 
grown  great  and  rich  thereby.  The  gentleman  from  Illinois 
(Mr.  Black)  has  noticed  that  men  come  here,  and  he  does 
not  want  them  to  come;  hence  he  is  willing  that  our  wages 
shall  be  lowered  to  keep  people  away.  Well,  this  is  not  the 
time  to  discuss  immigration;  but  while  people  are  coming  I 
am  glad  they  have  not  yet  imbibed  the  gentleman's  ideas 
and  have  not  yet  begun  to  clamor  for  lower  wages.  I  really 
cannot  help  adding  that  when  the  gentleman  from  Illinois 
(Mr.  Black)  starts  his  reformed  immigration  of  men  who 
come  here  "unawed  by  influence  and  unbribed  by  gain,"  I 


204  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

hope  to  be  there,  for  it  would  be  a  sight  hitherto  unknown 
on  earth  of  men  who  forsook  their  home  without  being  either 
pushed  or  pulled.  [Laughter.]  .  .  . 

Let  me  give  one  item,  and  the  figures  shall  be  furnished 
by  the  gentleman  from  Alabama  (Mr.  Wheeler),  who  told 
me  in  your  presence  that  the  value  of  all  the  cotton  raised  in 
the  United  States  was  only  $300,000,000,  while  the  finished 
product  of  that  cotton  was  worth  $1,750,000,000.  When 
cotton  leaves  the  field,  it  is  worth  $300,000,000;  when  it 
leaves  the  mill,  it  is  worth  six  times  as  much.  On  our  own 
cotton  crop  alone  we  might  in  time  make  the  profit  on  a  bil 
lion  and  a  half  of  manufactured  goods.  Nor  is  there  anything 
to  prevent  such  a  result  in  a  protective  tariff. 

Some  men  think,  indeed  this  bill  and  its  author's  speeches 
proceed  upon  the  supposition,  that  the  first  step  toward 
gaining  the  markets  of  the  world  is  to  give  up  our  own,  just 
as  if  a  fortified  army,  with  enemies  on  all  flanks,  should  over 
turn  its  own  breastworks  as  the  first  preliminary  to  a  march 
into  the  open.  Even  the  foolish  chivalry  of  the  Marquis  of 
Montcalm,  which  led  him  to  his  death  on  the  Heights  of 
Abraham,  had  not  that  crowning  folly.  Such  is  not  the  his 
tory  of  the  world;  such  is  not  even  the  example  of  England. 
Tariff  duties,  whether  levied  for  that  purpose  or  for  revenue, 
become  a  dead  letter  when  we  are  able  to  compete  with  the 
outside  world. 

We  are  the  only  rival  that  England  fears,  for  we  alone 
have  in  our  borders  the  population  and  the  wages,  the  raw 
material,  and  within  ourselves  the  great  market  which  in 
sures  to  us  the  most  improved  machinery.  Our  constant 
power  to  increase  our  wages  insures  us  also  continuous  prog 
ress.  If  you  wish  us  to  follow  the  example  of  England,  I  say 
yes,  with  all  my  heart,  but  her  real  example  and  nothing  less. 
Let  us  keep  protection,  as  she  did,  until  no  rival  dares  to 
invade  our  territory,  and  then  we  may  take  our  chances  for  a 
future  which  by  that  time  will  not  be  unknown.  .  .  . 

Where  he  [Lincoln]  failed  wre  cannot  hope  to  succeed.  But 
though  we  fail  here  to-day  like  our  great  leader  of  other  days, 
in  the  larger  field  before  the  mightier  tribunal  which  will 
finally  and  forever  decide  this  question  we  shall  be  more  than 


THE  WILSON  BILL  205 

conquerors;  for  this  great  nation,  shaking  off  as  it  has  once 
before  the  influence  of  a  lower  civilization,  will  go  on  to  fulfill 
its  high  destiny  until  over  the  South,  as  well  as  over  the 
North,  shall  be  spread  the  full  measure  of  that  amazing 
prosperity  which  is  the  wonder  of  the  world.  [Prolonged 
applause  on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries.] 

The  bill  was  carried  in  the  House  with  slightly  less 
than  the  usual  Democratic  majority,  but  it  was  des 
tined  to  have  a  rough  passage  before  it  finally  became 
a  law.  The  Senate  grafted  upon  it  six  hundred  or  more 
amendments,  some  of  which  were  radical  in  their 
character.  When  the  bill  came  back  to  the  House  for 
action  on  these  amendments,  there  was  much  brave 
talk  against  the  mutilation  of  the  bill.  On  July  19, 
1894,  a  drastic  rule  was  proposed  with  reference  to  the 
conference.  Reed  felt  sure  that  with  all  this  display 
of  bravery  the  House  in  the  end  would  yield  to  the 
Senate  and  he  turned  his  batteries  of  ridicule  upon  the 
conference.  The  proposed  rule,  he  said,  would  present 
the  House  to  the  Senate  as  solid,  and  that  would  be 
liable  to  be  misleading. 

Your  committee  needs  all  the  factitious  support  that  they 
can  possibly  get  and  that  is  another  reason  why  you  should 
adopt  this  rule  because  it  is  in  your  power  and  you  want 
to  hold  up  the  hands  of  the  brethren  —  which  are  not  very 
strong  [laughter]  —  and  make  them  vigorous,  because  they 
are  contending,  not  with  idealists,  not  with  individuals  with 
a  theory,  but  with  individuals  who  have  definite  purposes, 
definite  aims,  definite  motives;  gentlemen  who  know  pre 
cisely  on  which  side  their  provisions  are  buttered.  [Laugh 
ter  and  applause.]  .  .  .  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  has  paid 
a  touching  tribute  to  the  stern  persistence  of  the  conferees 
on  the  part  of  the  House  on  this  bill  —  their  heroism  is 


206  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

dragged  before  the  public  for  the  first  time  —  I  hope  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio,  in  his  reserved  time  or  in  mine,  will 
tell  us  just  how  long  this  courage  is  to  last.  [Laughter  and 
applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  What  does  "courage" 
mean  or  what  does  it  amount  to  when  it  backs  down  as  soon 
as  the  time  comes?  [Laughter.]  What  does  courage  that  lasts 
only  a  week  amount  to,  when  it  is  the  courage  of  two  weeks 
that  does  the  business? 

After  the  adoption  of  the  rule  Mr.  Wilson  made  an 
eloquent  speech  full  of  defiance  to  the  Senate  and  caused 
to  be  read  the  famous  letter  to  himself  from  the  Presi 
dent.  The  reading  of  the  letter  was  frequently  inter 
rupted  with  loud  cheers  from  the  Democratic  members, 
and  especially  the  passage  which  denounced  the  aban 
donment  of  their  tariff  platform  as  "party  perfidy  and 
party  dishonor."  Reed  in  reply  took  occasion  again 
to  call  attention  to  the  passing  display  of  courage. 
The  gentleman  from  West  Virginia,  he  said,  "  amid  the 
uproarious  applause  of  the  other  side,  has  pledged 
this  House  of  Representatives  to  stand  out  against 
the  Senate."  He  drew  out  the  admission  from  Wilson 
that  although  the  President's  letter  was  marked 
"personal,"  he  had  consented  to  have  it  made  public. 

The  President  has  been  pleased  [Reed  said]  to  address 
a  communication  to  the  House  of  Representatives  through 
his  faithful  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  Whether  this 
relationship  thus  intimate  between  a  committee  of  this 
House  and  the  President  was  contemplated  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  or  not,  is  hardly  worth  the  trouble 
of  inquiry.  Least  of  all  would  anybody  on  this  side  find  fault 
with  the  severe  language  which  the  President  —  the  Demo 
cratic  President  —  has  seen  fit  to  use  about  a  Democratic 
Senate.  [Laughter  and  applause  on  the  Republican  side.] 


THE  WILSON  BILL  207 

The  House  without  a  division  voted  to  sustain  Wil 
son  and  his  colleagues  in  their  battle  with  the  Senate. 

But  the  end  of  the  "courage,"  which  Reed  foresaw, 
came  to  pass.  After  some  weeks  more  spent  in  confer 
ence  it  was  given  out  that  a  Democratic  senator  pro 
posed  to  make  a  motion  to  terminate  the  conference 
which  would  mean  the  end  of  the  bill.  Thereupon 
the  Democratic  leaders  of  the  House  adopted  the  pro 
gramme  that  the  House  should  recede  and  concur  in 
the  six  hundred  or  more  Senate  amendments  by  a 
single  vote.  In  addition  it  was  proposed  that  the  House 
should  consider  as  separate  propositions,  bills  putting 
on  the  free  list  sugar,  coal,  iron,  and  barbed  wire,  and 
vote  upon  them  after  an  hour's  debate  upon  each. 
The  adoption  of  this  programme  meant  the  passage 
into  law  of  the  Wilson  bill  with  all  the  Senate  amend 
ments,  and  an  attempt  to  disguise  the  proceeding  by 
a  demonstration  upon  the  free-list  bills,  which  could 
by  no  possibility  pass  the  Senate  and  become  laws. 

This  outcome  of  the  "courage"  which  Reed  had 
emphasized  a  few  weeks  previously  gave  him  a  supreme 
opportunity,  and  he  never  used  his  power  of  ridicule 
more  effectively  than  on  the  day  when  the  programme 
came  before  the  House. 

The  first  proposition  you  are  called  upon  to  vote  [he  said] 
is  that  you  will  take  action  upon  papers  that  are  not  before 
you,  that  you  will  violate  the  principles  of  parliamentary 
law  in  order  to  do  a  thing  which  you  yourselves  have  pro 
claimed  to  be  disgusting.  You  are  going  to  trample  upon  the 
barriers  which  preserve  the  rights  of  the  people  of  this  coun 
try,  in  order  to  perform  an  act  which  would  be  distasteful  to 


208  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

gentlemen  who  were  differently  constituted  from  yourselves. 
[Laughter  on  the  Republican  side.]  You  are  going  to  do  it 
in  defiance  of  all  your  protestations,  in  defiance  of  all  your 
declarations!  You  are  going  to  die,  not  only  in  the  last  ditch, 
but  in  the  very  lowest  part  of  the  ditch.  [Laughter  on  the 
Republican  side.]  You  are  going  to  enact  a  bill  which  you 
believe  not  to  be  an  honest  bill,  and  you  are  going  to  accom 
pany  it  with  a  parade,  which  you  also  know  is  not  honest. 
You  are  going  to  desert  the  "roll  of  honor"  [laughter]  in  order 
to  trick  yourselves  out  with  the  gewgaws  that  are  contained 
in  this  proposition.  You  are  going  to  give  us  free  sugar.  — 
Yes,  in  your  minds.  [Laughter.]  You  are  going  to  give  us  free 
coal.  —  Oh,  my  friends!  And  then  you  are  going  to  give  us 
free  iron,  and  you  are  going  to  do  it  in  a  bold  and  manly 
way,  like  the  backdown  you  are  making  here.  [Laughter  and 
applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  You  are  going  to  have  no 
committee  of  this  House,  not  even  your  own  pliant  com 
mittee,  to  stand  between  you  and  the  noble  purpose  that 
thrills  your  souls.  [Laughter  and  applause  on  the  Republican 
side.]  Now  how  do  you  like  the  whole  programme?  You  are 
going  to  vote  it;  say  how  you  like  it. 

A  voice  on  the  Democratic  side  replied  amid  laugh 
ter,  "First-rate."  Reed  retorted,  "Providence  loves 
a  cheerful  devourer."  [Laughter.] 

Wilson  made  a  speech,  composed  in  large  part  of 
a  denunciation  of  trusts  and  monopolies,  and  closed 
with  a  reference  to  the  bill  presented  to  put  sugar 
on  the  free  list,  which,  however,  could  not  become  a 
law. 

Reed  in  reply  expressed  regret  for  the  position  of 
his  antagonists. 

So  far  as  the  gentleman  from  West  Virginia  is  concerned 
and  his  compatriots,  there  is  not  the  slightest  necessity  of  my 
commenting  on  the  difference  between  this  scene  of  sorrow, 
and  the  triumphal  procession  which  carried  him  out  of  this 


THE  WILSON  BILL  209 

House.  [Laughter  and  applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  He 
is  not  so  joyous  now,  having  been  carried  out  in  another 
branch,  and  more  effectually.  [Renewed  laughter.]  Our  con 
ferees  came  back  to  us,  gentlemen  of  the  House,  without  so 
much  as  the  name  of  the  bill  that  they  transported  across 
this  building  a  month  ago.  It  will  be  known  in  history  as 
the  "  Gorman-Brice  bill,  vice  the  Wilson  bill  dead."  [Laughter 
and  applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  Aye,  dead  on  the 
field  of  "dishonor."  [Renewed  laughter  and  applause.]  The 
gentleman  from  West  Virginia  and  his  compatriots  appear 
before  us  now,  not  as  the  triumphal  reformers,  marching  to 
glory  at  the  sound  of  their  own  sweet  voices.  They  are  little 
babes  in  the  wood,  and  it  will  be  found  pretty  soon  that 
they  were  left  there  by  their  "uncle"  in  the  White  House. 
[Great  laughter  and  applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  And 
I  can  hear  the  coming  sound  of  the  pinions  of  the  little 
birds,  bearing  the  ballots  that  are  to  bury  them  out  of  sight. 
[Laughter  on  the  Republican  side.]  We  shall  not  write  your 
epitaph.  That  has  been  done  by  a  nearer  and  a  dearer.  That 
has  been  done  by  the  man  whose  name  must  be  affixed  to 
this  bill  before  it  can  discredit  the  statute  books.  His  name 
must  be  to  it.1  We  have  a  proposition  to  fire  one  of  those 
pop-gun  tariff  bills  for  which  the  gentleman  from  Illinois 
(Mr.  Springer)  was  deposed  from  the  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means.  [Laughter  on  Republican  side.]  His  successor,  after 
filling  the  atmosphere  with  his  outspread  wings,  finds  his 
nest  in  some  other  bird's  premises.  [Laughter  on  the  Repub 
lican  side.]  Why  not  resign  if  you  were  to  adopt  the  ac 
tion  of  the  other  person.  I  congratulate  the  gentleman  from 
Illinois  (Mr.  Springer)  upon  his  personal  triumph. 

And  so  it  continued  throughout  the  day.  Never  was 
a  retreat  made  more  disastrous.  Never  was  a  subter 
fuge  more  mercilessly  torn  to  pieces  than  that  of  the 
four  little  tariff  bills  which  were  designed  to  cover  the 

1  President  Cleveland  refused  to  sign  the  bill,  and  in  default  of  his 
signature  it  became  a  law  ten  days  after  it  had  been  submitted  to 
him. 


210  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

retreat.    When  the  last  of  these  bills  was  reached  for 
consideration,  Reed  said :  — 

This  is  the  last  of  the  air-cushions  which  the  statesmen  of 
this  little  kingdom  of  Lilliput,  in  which  we  are  now  living, 
have  arranged  for  themselves  to  tumble  on  this  evening.  Of 
course  it  is  a  cushion  that  is  filled  with  air  like  the  rest  — 
not  wind,  because  wind  is  air  in  motion;  this  is  air  that  has 
gone  to  rest.  [Laughter.] 

Shortly  after  the  passage  of  the  bill,  the  campaign 
opened  for  the  election  of  members  of  the  House. 
Reed  was  the  most  sought  man  in  his  party,  and  his 
part  in  the  campaign  was  conspicuous.  The  result  was 
an  overwhelming  rout  for  the  Democracy.  The  major 
ity  of  90  which  they  had  in  the  House  was  transformed 
into  a  Republican  majority  of  145,  the  greatest  change 
between  two  successive  elections  that  had  ever  been 
witnessed  in  the  history  of  the  House.  The  represen 
tation  from  most  of  the  Southern  states,  on  account 
of  the  race  issue,  and  from  the  Tammany  districts  in 
New  York  City,  was  too  securely  attached  to  the 
Democratic  party  to  be  lost  even  in  a  revolution. 
But  almost  every  other  seat  in  the  country  was  taken 
by  the  Republicans.  The  result  meant  the  return  of 
Reed  to  the  Speakership  by  an  enormous  majority. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  QUORUM  RULING  VINDICATED  —  THE  MORGAN 
GOLD  CONTRACT 

THERE  remain  some  portions  of  the  work  of  this  Con 
gress  to  which  reference  should  be  made.  The  old  con 
troversy  over  the  rules  steadily  recurred,  and  Reed 
was  pretty  apt  to  have  a  word  upon  it.  One  day  the 
question  of  the  quorum  came  under  discussion,  and  in 
a  reply  to  a  speech  by  Springer,  Reed  said:  — 

When  I  find  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  and  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  opposition,  of  course  it  would 
be  a  very  puzzling  matter  to  me  if  I  did  not  have  some  con 
victions  of  my  own.  [Laughter.]  I  am  sorry  that  the  gentle 
man  cannot  seem  to  understand  the  matters  involved  in  these 
discussions.  I  am  exceedingly  sorry  that  the  Democratic 
party  cannot  understand  them,  and  I  realize  the  truth  of  the 
old  proverb  that  a  match  for  the  very  gods  is  lack  of  knowl 
edge  —  to  put  it  in  no  harsher  fashion.  [Laughter.] 

He  favored  a  rule  which  would  prevent  one  man 
from  taking  all  the  time  of  the  House  under  the  pre 
text  of  "freedom  of  debate."  A  limitation  was  neces 
sary  in  the  interest  of  that  very  freedom.  Reed  favored 
what  he  called  the  previous  question  of  the  fathers. 
"While  I  am  not  violently  in  love  with  a  thing  because 
our  fathers  were  for  it,  I  can  use  the  argument  when 
I  am  appealing  to  a  set  of  gentlemen  who  are  fond  of 


212  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  action  of  our  fathers."  [Laughter.]  He  declared 
that  the  House  should  have  restored  to  itself  the  power 
that  had  been  taken  away 

by  a  few  filibusters  —  filibuster  being  a  Spanish  name  for 
a  land  pirate.  [Laughter.]  Let  us  not  confuse  honest  debate 
with  that  miserable  bastard  business  by  which  one  man 
stands  here  and  sets  up  his  will  against  the  will  of  all  of  us. 
I  know  and  so  do  you  that  we  are  all  the  embodiment  of 
absolute  wisdom  [laughter],  but  this  is  a  world  on  which  we 
have  got  to  live  and  let  live;  and  it  may  happen  even  to  the 
gentleman  from  Texas  (Mr.  Kilgore) ,  that  on  some  occasion 
the  wisdom  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-five  other  gentlemen 
may  be  on  a  par  with  his  or  possibly  just  a  little  shade  better. 
[Laughter.] 

A  danger  to  be  guarded  against  in  framing  a  rule  was 
that  men  would  often  give  it  an  unreasonable  applica 
tion.  It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  "men  never  remain 
reasonably  bad.  They  carry  their  badness  to  excess 
and  therefore  to  correction."  It  was  his  contention 
that  the  House  should  retain  control  of  debate,  so  that 
when  it  was  abused  and  indulged  in  for  purposes  of 
delay,  the  House  itself  could  act  upon  the  situation 
and  close  debate  in  such  a  case  if  it  saw  fit  to  do  so. 

It  was  during  the  second  session  of  this  Congress 
that  his  antagonists  were  forced  to  adopt  the  principle 
of  the  present,  instead  of  the  voting,  quorum  which 
he  had  enunciated  in  his  famous  ruling  when  Speaker. 
There  came  a  time  when  the  Democrats,  although  they 
had  a  majority  of  ninety,  were  unable  to  maintain  a 
quorum  out  of  their  own  numbers.  The  situation  was 
ornamented  with  the  usual  long  succession  of  fruitless 
roll-calls.  Under  Reed's  lead  the  fight  was  desperately 


THE  QUORUM  RULING  VINDICATED      213 

waged.  The  Republicans  refrained  from  voting  on 
motions  and  other  matters  of  business.  There  was  fur 
nished  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  the  aphorism  im 
plied  in  a  question  put  by  Reed  during  the  preceding 
Congress:  "Do  you  not  see  that  if  the  House  gives 
permission  for  piracy  some  gentleman  may  choose 
to  go  into  that  interesting  and  lucrative  business?" 
Reed  proceeded  to  reduce  the  Democratic  theory  of  a 
quorum  to  an  absurdity.  The  business  of  the  House 
was  at  a  complete  standstill  for  many  days,  and 
finally,  after  many  messages  to  absent  members,  the 
majority  surrendered,  and  on  April  17,  1894,  a  rule 
was  adopted  providing  that  tellers  should  note  enough 
names  of  members  present  and  not  answering  on  a 
roll-call  to  make  a  quorum,  and  that  such  members 
should  be  counted  as  present  in  order  to  make  a  quorum. 
Partisanship  had  done  its  worst  in  the  bitterness 
with  which  it  had  assailed  Reed  for  his  ruling  upon  the 
quorum.  He  might  have  been  pardoned  a  word  of 
triumph.  But  he  was  too  large  a  man  to  indulge  in  it. 
He  made  a  brief  and  simple  speech  on  the  proposed  rule 
in  which  there  was  not  the  least  glorification. 

This  scene  here  to-day  [he  said]  is  a  more  effective  address 
than  any  I  could  make.  The  House  is  about  to  adopt  the 
principle  for  which  we  contended  in  the  Fifty-first  Congress 
and  is  about  to  adopt  it  under  circumstances  which  show 
conclusively  to  the  country  its  value.  No  words  that  I  can 
utter  can  add  to  the  importance  of  the  occasion.  I  con 
gratulate  the  Fifty-third  Congress  on  the  wise  decision  it 
is  about  to  make. 

The  rule  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  213  to  47,  and  thus 


214  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

was  brought  to  an  end  the  most  historic  controversy 
in  the  development  of  the  law  of  the  House. 

During  January,  1895,  the  condition  of  the  Treas 
ury  became  desperate.  The  gold  reserve  would  have 
been  very  narrow  even  in  normal  times  to  maintain 
the  stability  of  our  monetary  standard,  but  there  was 
a  great  deficit  in  our  revenues  which  intensified  the 
difficulty.  This  deficiency  had  exceeded  a  hundred 
million  in  less  than  two  years.  When  greenbacks  or 
treasury  notes  had  been  redeemed  in  gold,  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  government  would  require  their  use  in  pay 
ing  its  running  expenses.  And  when  paid  out  they 
would  again  be  presented  for 'redemption  in  gold.  An 
income  tax  had  been  provided,  but  at  the  outset  its 
constitutionality  appeared  very  doubtful,  and  it  was 
finally  overturned  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court; 
but  even  this  tax,  if  it  had  been  upheld,  would  have 
been  insufficient  to  meet  the  emergency.  An  impor 
tant  fault  in  the  conduct  of  the  Treasury  at  that  time 
consisted  in  the  failure  to  provide  a  sufficient  revenue, 
which  might  easily  have  been  obtained  by  the  tempo 
rary  imposition  of  stamp  taxes. 

In  default  of  sufficient  revenue,  Reed  himself  intro 
duced  a  bill  to  keep  the  balance  of  receipts  and  expen 
ditures  separate  from  the  redemption  account  of  the 
Treasury;  and  for  a  separate  issue  of  bonds  to  maintain 
the  validity  of  each  account.  The  majority,  however, 
refused  to  accept  his  bill  and  adopted  another  policy 
which  was  subjected  to  much  criticism.  In  order  to 
procure  a  supply  of  gold  the  administration  made  a 


THE  QUORUM  RULING  VINDICATED      215 

contract  with  J.  P.  Morgan  and  Company  for  the 
sale  of  some  sixty-five  millions  of  four  per  cents, 
at  a  premium  much  smaller  than  that  which  simi 
lar  bonds  usually  commanded.  These  bonds,  like 
the  other  bonds  of  the  government,  were  payable  in 
coin.  There  was  a  provision  in  the  contract  that  Mor 
gan  and  Company  would  accept  three  per  cents  at 
par  on  condition  that  they  contained  a  provision 
making  them  payable  in  gold.  In  order  to  issue  such 
an  exceptional  bond  it  was  necessary  to  secure  action 
by  Congress,  and  Wilson  brought  forward  a  bill  to 
sanction  the  issue.  Reed  was  willing  to  give  his  full 
support  to  any  proceeding  which  the  administration 
believed  necessary  in  its  effort  to  maintain  the  gold 
standard,  but  he  gravely  doubted  the  wisdom  of  having 
a  small  issue  of  bonds  different  from  all  the  other  bonds 
of  the  government  and  thus  to  some  extent  discredit 
ing  them.  He  reluctantly  voted  for  the  bill,  which 
failed  to  pass  the  House.  His  desire  to  amend  the  bill 
drew  out  a  letter  from  a  banker  who  severely  criti 
cised  Reed,  but  upon  somewhat  narrow  grounds.  The 
following  quotations  are  from  Reed's  reply  to  this 
letter:— 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Feb.  11,  1895. 
MY  DEAR  SIR:  — 

You  seem  to  be  a  member  of  a  respectable  firm  of  bankers 
and  say  you  are  a  Republican.  Would  it  not  be  wiser  for  you 
to  suspect  me  of  patriotism  than  of  ambition?  I  have  ex 
plained  at  full  length  my  reasons  for  action  in  a  speech  which 
I  enclose.  I  desire  to  add  that  Mr.  Hendricks,  a  banker  from 
Brooklyn,  and  I  had  agreed  upon  my  substitute,  with  an 
amendment  to  which  Mr.  Springer  had  assented,  and  the 


216  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

same  would  have  passed  at  once  but  the  Administration 
forbade.  Had  that  passed,  it  might  have  gone  through  the 
Senate  and  could  have  done  some  good.  If  you  will  read  an 
article  in  the  Boston  "Herald,"  Saturday,  February  ninth, 
you  will  see  a  true  statement  of  those  31  per  cent  bonds.  If 
you  desire  to  approve  of  such  a  trade,  you  may  do  so,  —  I 
do  not. 

If  you  are  really  a  Republican,  why  should  you  think  ill 
of  your  own  friends  in  order  to  think  well  of  the  pilots  who 
have  put  us  on  these  rocks?  When  you  see  these  bonds  at 
their  proper  premium  you  will  see  what  has  been  done.  As 
the  "Herald"  says:  "We  protest  that  the  valuation  of  our 
credit  involved  in  the  President's  arrangement  is  not  a  true 
one.  If  the  bonds  had  been  sold  in  open  competition  they 
would  unquestionably  have  brought  a  much  better  figure. 
But  here  there  was,  so  far  as  is  known,  no  competition.  The 
President  appears  to  have  put  himself  into  the  hands  of  a 
syndicate  of  foreign  and  native  bankers,  and  his  chief  aim 
in  the  negotiation  would  seem  to  have  been  to  make  the  dif 
ference  between  gold  bonds  and  coin  bonds  as  large  as  pos 
sible,  with  the  view  of  giving  an  impressive  object-lesson  to 
Congress.  The  lesson  is  obviously  cooked  up,  and  the  cook 
ing  has  been  done  at  the  expense  of  American  taxpayers." 

Now  the  "Herald"  is  "Gold,"  "Mugwump,"  and  every 
thing  except  Republican.  Is  John  Sherman  advising  this  ac 
tion?  I  happen  to  know  that  he  is  not.  On  the  contrary,  I 
submitted  my  proposition  to  him  and  he  fully  approved  it 
as  the  only  practical  one. 

Is  Mr.  Carlisle  a  sounder  financier  than  Mr.  Sherman? 

Very  truly  yours, 

T.  B.  REED. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   SECOND   SPEAKERSHIP 

THE  Fifty-fourth  Congress  assembled  on  December 
2, 1895,  and  Reed  was  chosen  Speaker  of  the  House, 
receiving  240  votes  to  95  for  Crisp,  —  a  very  ample 
majority  compared  with  that  which  he  had  led  in  his 
previous  Speakership.  He  was  not  merely  the  leader  of 
the  House,  but,  since  the  President  was  a  Democrat, 
he  was  the  official  head  of  his  party  in  the  country. 
It  is  doubtful  if  he  ever  took  more  satisfaction  in 
public  life  than  during  the  first  session  of  this  Con 
gress.  Out  of  the  vituperation  and  calumny  of  his 
first  Speakership  and  the  hard  and  continuous  fight 
ing  as  minority  leader  in  the  next  two  Congresses,  he 
had  emerged  into  smooth  water,  with  an  enormous 
majority  behind  him,  vindicated  by  the  country  and 
vindicated  too  by  his  political  opponents  in  that  part 
of  his  official  conduct  which  they  had  most  violently 
assailed. 

He  took  a  placid  enjoyment  in  presiding  over  the 
House,  and  his  manner  was  much  like  that  of  a  be 
nevolent  teacher.  The  philosophy  and  often  the  hu 
mor  of  his  rulings  helped  make  the  House  thoroughly 
good-natured.  On  assuming  the  Chair  he  said  that  it 
would  not  be  unbecoming  if  he  acknowledged  that  it 
was  very  agreeable  for  him 


218  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

to  stand  once  more  in  the  place  which  I  left  four  years  ago. 
.  .  .  Nor  shall  I  now  speak  of  the  future,  for  we  are  not  now 
putting  off  the  harness  but  putting  it  on.  Yet  I  think  I  may 
venture  to  say  of  the  future,  in  the  light  of  the  past,  that  if 
we  do  some  things  which  for  the  moment  seem  inadequate,  it 
may  be  that  time,  which  has  justified  itself  of  us  on  many 
occasions,  may  do  so  again. 

There  was  very  little  to  do  in  the  way  of  party  legis 
lation  because  the  chronic  political  difference  between 
the  House  and  the  Executive  was  again  witnessed. 
But  the  forward  movement  of  events  developed  ques 
tions  which  could  not  be  settled  by  the  maintenance 
of  the  old  party  alignments.  As  in  the  preceding  Con 
gress,  Reed  generally  supported  the  President  in  mat 
ters  which  were  not  clearly  partisan.  It  may  fairly  be 
assumed  that  he  approved  of  the  legislation  desired 
by  the  President  and  speedily  passed  by  a  House  so 
strongly  Republican  and  led  by  himself. 

The  Venezuela  boundary  controversy  was  the  most 
important  subject  brought  forward  and  acted  upon  at 
the  request  of  the  President.  In  the  boundary  dispute 
between  Great  Britain  and  Venezuela,  our  govern 
ment  had  proposed  that  the  question  be  submitted  to 
arbitration.  Great  Britain  declined  to  act  according 
to  the  suggestion.  President  Cleveland  thereupon 
sent  to  Congress  his  famous  message  in  which  he  urged 
that  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  threatened  the  Mon 
roe  Doctrine.  He  argued  that  if  a  European  country 
extended  its  boundaries  and  took  possession  of  the 
territory  of  an  American  country  against  its  will,  "it 
is  difficult  to  see  why  to  that  extent  such  European 


'THE   CZAR" 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  219 

power  does  not  thereby  attempt  to  extend  its  system 
of  government  to  that  portion  of  this  continent  which 
is  thus  taken.  This  is  the  precise  action  which  Presi 
dent  Monroe  declared  to  be  *  dangerous  to  our  peace 
and  safety/  "  He  asked  Congress  to  appropriate  money 
for  a  commission  to  be  appointed  by  the  President 
which  should  investigate  and  report  upon  the  boundary 
in  dispute  between  the  two  countries,  and  when  such 
a  report  had  been  made  and  accepted,  the  President 
declared,  with  more  bluntness  than  diplomacy,  that  it 
would  in  his  opinion  "  be  the  duty  of  the  United  States 
to  resist  by  every  means  in  its  power,  as  a  willful  aggres 
sion  upon  its  rights  and  interests,"  the  appropriation 
by  Great  Britain  of  any  lands  which  the  Commission 
had  determined  to  belong  to  Venezuela. 

This  recommendation  was  sufficiently  heroic.  It  was, 
perhaps,  a  fair  application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
even  if  a  somewhat  ill-mannered  one.  There  seemed 
no  other  course  open  to  Congress  than  to  make  an  ap 
propriation  for  the  commission.  The  Committee  on 
Foreign  Affairs  had  not  yet  been  announced,  but  Hitt 
of  Illinois  was  certain  to  be  its  chairman,  and  Reed 
accorded  recognition  to  him  to  offer  the  resolution. 
It  passed  the  House  without  opposition.  Direct  as 
this  proceeding  was,  it  could  have  given  no  offense 
to  Great  Britain.  But  the  conclusion  of  the  message 
was  more  undiplomatic  and  even  warlike  in  tone.  In 
making  these  recommendations,"  the  President  pro 
ceeded,  "I  am  fully  alive  to  the  responsibility  incurred, 
and  keenly  realize  all  the  consequences  that  may  fol- 


220  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

low."  There  was  an  even  more  direct  hint  at  war  in  the 
concluding  paragraph.  As  William  James  put  it,  "The 
President's  fearful  blunder  was  in  coupling  his  direct 
threat  of  war  with  his  demand  for  a  commission."  1 

Except  for  the  affair  with  Mexico,  Great  Britain 
was  the  only  foreign  nation  with  which  we  had  ever 
been  at  war;  and  in  those  good  old  days,  which  cul 
minated  and,  let  us  hope,  came  to  an  end  in  the  Ven 
ezuela  incident,  a  "war  scare"  with  Great  Britain  was 
quite  the  proper  thing  with  which  to  fire  the  national 
heart.  And  a  "war  scare"  speedily  appeared.  The 
world  proceeded  with  enthusiasm  to  sell  securities 
in  our  great  international  market  in  New  York,  and 
stocks  tumbled  in  a  sensational  way.  While  we  had 
vast  wealth,  seventy  million  people,  great  moral  power, 
and  all  the  other  subjects  for  fine  political  speaking,  — 
what  was  more  to  the  point  at  the  moment,  our  har 
bors  were  undefended  and  we  were  without  ships. 
However  worthy  the  nation  might  be,  it  was  hardly 
an  opportune  time  for  it  to  fly  into  a  rage  against  the 
most  formidably  armed  nation  in  the  world  so  far  as 
the  geographical  isolation  of  the  United  States  was 
concerned.  The  British  statesmen,  however,  showed 
much  good  sense  and  the  difference  was  amicably  ad 
justed. 

During  the  winter  of  1895-96  the  canvass  for  the 
Republican  presidential  nomination  became  very  ac 
tive.  Reed's  fitness  and  availability  as  a  candidate 

1  See  letter  of  William  James  to  the  author,  Congressional 
Record,  Dec.  28,  1895. 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  221 

were  very  widely  recognized.  The  tariff  was  to  be  an 
important  issue,  and  he  had  made  clear  his  position 
upon  that  issue  in  many  hard-fought  battles.  The 
money  question  was  sure  to  come  forward,  although 
it  was  not  foreseen  in  the  preliminary  campaign  that 
it  was  to  be  the  paramount  issue.  His  record  upon 
that  question  made  him  conspicuously  the  one  man 
in  his  party  to  be  nominated. 

On  the  tariff  he  was  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  contest 
with  McKinley.  The  Republican  tariff  which  had  been 
enacted  in  1890  bore  the  name  of  the  latter.  "  McKin- 
leyism"  became  the  campaign  epithet  which  was  scorn 
fully  flung  at  the  Republicans,  and  was  made  to  do 
effective  service  in  the  congressional  elections  of  1890, 
and  in  the  presidential  election  two  years  afterwards. 
It  represented  the  overshadowing  issue  then  in  the 
public  mind.  If  ever  anything  had  appeared  to  be 
repudiated  at  the  polls  it  was  "  McKinley  ism,"  and  in 
the  popular  mind  the  order  which  came  in  under  Mr. 
Cleveland  represented  not  so  much  an  affirmative  issue 
of  its  own  as  anti-McKinleyism. 

The  country  signally  failed  to  prosper  under  Mr. 
Cleveland,  and  there  was  a  violent  revulsion  of  popu 
lar  sentiment.  The  pendulum  swung  back  to  the  oppo 
site  extreme  and  the  thing  that  had  just  been  an  epi 
thet  became  a  watchword.  McKinleyism  became  at 
the  moment  as  popular  as  it  had  before  been  unpopu 
lar,  and  it  made  a  more  definite  and  effective  appeal 
than  all  the  remarkable  work  Reed  had  done  against 
the  Mills  bill  and  the  Wilson  bill  and  in  favor  of  pro- 


222  THOMAS  BKACKETT  REED 

tection  measures.  When  therefore  Reed  defeated  Mc- 
Kinley  for  the  Speakership  and  appointed  him,  as  his 
leading  antagonist,  to  the  chairmanship  of  Ways  and 
Means,  he  placed  him  in  a  position  which  at  first 
won  him  much  odium  and  unpopularity  but  which  in 
the  end  was  to  furnish  him,  not  indeed  with  his  strong 
est  reason,  but  with  his  most  effective  appeal  for  the 
nomination.  It  is  hardly  putting  it  too  strongly  to  say 
that  the  vote  in  the  caucus  of  the  Republicans  of  the 
House  which  defeated  McKinley  for  the  Speakership 
made  him  President. 

But  the  canvass  was  destined  in  its  first  stages  to  be 
very  exciting.  Mr.  Mark  Hanna  made  his  first  con 
spicuous  appearance  in  politics  as  the  manager  of  the 
McKinley  campaign.  Probably  no  man  who  ever 
lived  in  America  had  a  greater  influence  with  what  are 
called  "  the  interests,"  and  in  those  days  "  the  interests  " 
had  tremendous  power.  Mr.  James  F.  Aldrich,  a  mem 
ber  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  was  the  manager  for 
Reed.  The  first  serious  setback  that  the  Reed  forces 
received  was  in  the  Southern  states.  Those  states  cast 
no  electoral  votes  for  the  Republican  candidates,  but 
they  had  as  full  a  representation  in  the  National  Con 
vention,  on  the  basis  of  population,  as  the  strongest 
Republican  states.  Securing  delegates  was  largely  a 
matter  of  dicker  with  the  local  "machines"  and  with 
so-called  leaders.  The  McKinley  managers  made  co 
pious  hauls  of  delegates  from  the  South. 

About  this  feature  of  the  campaign  Reed  used  after 
wards  to  speak  with  a  good  deal  of  bitterness.  He  be- 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  223 

lieved  that  the  use  of  money  played  an  important  part 
in  securing  the  Southern  delegates.  But  his  friends 
continued  to  make  a  stout  fight.  Public  meetings  were 
held  in  support  of  his  candidacy  in  different  parts  of 
the  country.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of  these 
meetings  was  that  held  in  Boston  where  a  great  audi 
ence  listened  to  speeches  by  William  Alden  Smith  and 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  Roosevelt  was  a  warm  personal 
friend  of  Reed  and  his  enthusiastic  supporter.  The 
friendship  between  the  two  men  began  ten  years  or 
more  before  1896,  near  the  opening  of  Roosevelt's 
public  career,  and  continued  through  the  remainder 
of  Reed's  life.  They  were  not  in  agreement  on  the  im 
portant  questions  related  to  the  war  with  Spain  but, 
notwithstanding  that,  they  remained  friends. 

Reed's  state  and  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
endorsed  him  very  strongly,  and  elected  delegates  in 
his  favor.  New  Hampshire  commended  both  Reed 
and  McKinley,  but  chose  delegates  friendly  to  the 
former.  Connecticut  also  was  in  favor  of  Reed,  but  with 
some  division  among  the  delegates.  His  candidacy 
received  a  disastrous  blow  in  Vermont.  New  England 
had  been  confidently  relied  upon,  but  Vermont  broke 
the  solidity  of  that  section  by  declaring  for  McKinley. 
The  defection  of  that  state,  the  inroads  upon  the 
Southern  delegates,  and  the  carrying  of  Illinois  by 
McKinley,  gave  such  an  impetus  to  the  forces  of  the 
latter,  that  when  the  Convention  assembled  in  June, 
it  was  clearly  apparent  that  he  would  be  chosen  on 
the  first  ballot. 


224  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

The  member  of  the  National  Committee  from  Maine, 
Mr.  Joseph  H.  Manley,  was  in  charge  of  Reed's  inter 
ests  at  the  Convention,  and  in  the  week  preceding  the 
meeting  of  the  delegates  he  made  a  statement  that"  the 
vote  in  the  National  Committee  this  afternoon  was  so 
overwhelmingly  for  Governor  McKinley  that  it  settles 
his  nomination  on  the  first  ballot."  Naturally  this  pro 
duced  consternation  among  the  friends  of  Reed,  who 
were  ready  to  keep  up  the  fight  until  the  vote  in  the 
convention  proved  that  they  were  beaten.  The  Reed 
newspapers  censured  Manley  with  some  asperity.  The 
fact  seemed  to  be  that  Manley  was  depressed  by  the 
result  of  the  decision  of  the  National  Committee  con 
cerning  the  contested  delegations,  and  expressed  him 
self  with  a  great  deal  of  frankness  as  well  as  with  truth. 
He  regretted  his  frankness,  however,  as  is  shown  by 
the  following  from  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Reed:  — 

ST.  Louis,  June  12,  1896. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  REED:  — 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter.  I  did  make  the  statement 
attributed  to  me.  It  was  a  great  mistake  and  I  shall  regret  it 
all  my  life.  I  was  so  surprised  at  the  action  of  the  Committee 
and  the  open  announcement  that  they  were  to  practically 
seat  all  the  McKinley  contestants  —  have  the  Committee  on 
Credentials  adopt  the  National  Committee's  report  —  both 
chairmen  of  the  Convention,  that  I  felt  it  was  all  over  and 
everyone  in  the  Country  I  thought  would  so  understand  it. 
I  have  never  been  disloyal  in  thought,  word,  or  deed  to  you. 
What  more  can  I  say?  I  have  suffered  more  than  you  can 
ever  know  because  of  my  mistake.  .  .  . 

The  Convention  met  at  St.  Louis  on  June  16,  1896, 
and  on  June  18  the  nominations  were  made.  Reed's 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  225 

name  was  presented  in  brilliant  speeches  by  Senator 
Lodge  of  Massachusetts  and  by  Mr.  Charles  E.  Little- 
field,  one  of  the  delegates-at-large  from  Maine.  The 
result  was  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  for  that  reason  all 
the  wavering  delegates,  and  those  who  were  not  firmly 
pledged  to  other  candidates  and  wished  to  ally  them 
selves  with  the  sure  winner,  voted  for  McKinley,  who 
was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot.  Reed  received  83| 
votes.  If  all  the  delegates  had  acted  according  to  their 
real  opinions  and  the  opinions  of  their  constituents, 
he  would  certainly  have  received  a  very  much  larger 
vote. 

The  determining  factor  in  the  choice  of  delegates 
had  been  the  tariff,  but  that  was  not  to  be  the  fore 
most  issue  in  the  campaign.  The  money  question  was 
destined  to  displace  the  tariff,  largely  on  account  of  the 
radical  action  of  the  Democratic  Convention,  which 
assembled  later  at  Chicago,  and  which  responded  to 
Mr.  Bryan's  "crown  of  thorns  and  cross  of  gold" 
speech  by  making  him  its  nominee.  Fortunately  for 
the  party  and  the  country,  the  friends  of  Reed  had  a 
strong  if  not  determining  influence  in  securing  the  adop 
tion  by  the  Republican  convention  of  a  money  plank 
firmly  pledging  the  party  to  the  gold  standard. 

The  campaign  which  followed  was  conspicuous 
among  all  the  campaigns  that  have  ever  been  waged 
in  the  country,  for  the  reason  that  a  clear-cut  issue  was 
presented  to  the  voters.  There  was  practically  no  eva 
sion.  The  question  was  whether  we  should  have  the 
gold  standard,  or  the  free  coinage  of  both  gold  and 


226  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

silver  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  1,  which  meant  the  silver 
standard.  For  obviously  the  free  coinage  of  both  metals 
at  that  ratio  when  their  relative  bullion  value  was  as 
32  to  1,  could  have  had  no  other  result  than  to  banish 
gold  from  circulation  and  from  the  coinage.  Reed  was 
the  one  man  in  practical  politics  and  prominent  in  his 
party  who  was  fitted  to  lead  upon  that  issue. 

He  had  some  thought  of  retiring  from  politics,  but 
the  suddenness  with  which  the  money  issue  had  been 
thrust  upon  the  country,  and  its  great  importance, 
caused  him  to  decide  to  stand  for  reelection  to  the 
House.  The  following  from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Dalzell 
reveals  his  attitude. 

GRAND  BEACH,  ME.,  1  Aug.  '96. 
DEAR  DALZELL:  — 

Thanks  for  your  telegram  which  reached  me  after  a  wan 
dering.  But  is  n't  it  a  lovely  situation!  Of  course  we  shall 
beat  them,  but  what  a  task  it  seems  likely  to  be.  Let  me 
know  how  things  are  in  N.J.  &  Pa.,  and  what  you  hear  from 
any  of  our  fellows  in  the  West.  My  people  wanted  me  to  be 
up  again  and  things  were  so  mixed  here  that  I  felt  I  must. 

One  can't  help  a  sense  of  disgust  over  some  things,  but 
there  are  issues  at  stake  which  are  too  important  for  any 
body's  mere  personal  notions.  In  fact  politics  is  mostly  pill- 
taking.  .  .  . 

Be  a  good  man,  my  dear,  and  you  will  be  rewarded  in 
Heaven  —  a  good  place  if  it  materializes  for  any  of  us  but 
Dingley. 

Yours 

T.  B.  R. 

Having  determined  to  continue  in  politics,  he  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  campaign,  beginning  his  speaking 
in  Maine  and  concluding  on  the  Pacific  coast.  He  was 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  227 

renominated  July  29,  1896,  and  the  speech  which  he 
made  on  that  occasion  was  widely  printed  throughout 
the  country. 

Two  months  ago  [he  said]  no  man  of  any  standing  would 
have  risked  his  reputation  as  a  prophet  by  hinting  the  slight 
est  doubt  of  Republican  success.  Four  years  of  actual  trial 
of  the  opposition,  under  the  guidance  of  its  best  and  twice- 
trusted  leader,  had  left  no  shadow  of  question  as  to  public 
duty.  However  far  the  Republican  party  might  have  fallen 
short  of  perfection,  nevertheless  all  men  felt  that  it  was  the 
best  party  just  now  to  draw  nigh  to  for  whatever  is  to  be 
left  to  us  of  sound  government,  commercial  success,  and 
business  prosperity. 

Two  months  have  slipped  away  —  hardly  time  to  ripen  a 
strawberry,  much  less  a  system  of  finance  —  and  there  are 
those  who  tell  us  that  all  things  have  changed,  that  those  very 
men  who  were  being  arrayed  for  decent  burial  have  burst 
the  cerements  of  the  grave,  and,  transfigured  by  some  new 
arrangement  of  crowns  of  thorns  and  crosses  of  gold,  are 
to  lead  us  to  a  new  happiness,  and  even  repair  all  damage 
they  themselves  have  wrought. 

Now,  this  may  be  so,  but  to  me  it  does  not  seem  probable. 
Human  experience  in  every  walk  of  life  teaches  us  that  those 
who  have  blundered  will  blunder  again,  and  that  the  wisest 
course  is  not  to  employ  a  ship  captain  who  has  not  yet 
emerged  from  his  last  shipwreck,  but  the  safe  sailor  who  has 
never  lost  a  ship,  passenger,  or  a  letter,  but  who  has  sailed 
safe  through  every  sea.  He  may  have  lost  mast  and  sail, 
and  even  been  rudderless  for  hours,  but  if  he  has  every  time 
come  safe  to  shore,  better  have  him  than  all  the  landsmen 
who  are  forever  shouting  what  they  can  do,  and  never  dare 
to  tell  of  what  they  have  done.  Boasters  are  worth  nothing. 
Deeds  are  facts  and  are  forever  and  ever.  Talk  dies  on  the 
empty  air.  Better  a  pound  of  performance  than  a  shipload 
of  language. 

But  is  it  wise  or  just  to  call  all  Democrats  together,  and 
to  declare  them  all  wrong,  then  announce  they  must  be  beaten 


228  THOMAS  BRACKETT  HEED 

because  they  are  Democrats?  That  would  be  very  unwise, 
very  unjust,  and  senseless  altogether.  It  would  flout  all  his 
tory,  and  especially  their  own.  Parties  are  one  thing,  their 
individual  members  may  be  another.  Parties  seldom  follow 
their  best  men.  They  follow  their  average  sense.  In  real  ac 
tion  there  can  be  but  two  parties,  the  creating  party  and  the 
retarding  party.  The  progressive  party  may  be  unwise  in  its 
progress,  and  the  retarding  party  may  be  unwise  in  its  con 
servatism,  but  both  serve  a  good  purpose,  and  between  them 
both  the  world  slowly  and  safely  moves  ahead.  Dreadfully 
slowly  sometimes,  but  it  does  always  move  ahead. 

The  speech  from  which  the  preceding  brief  extracts 
are  taken  was  received  with  approbation  by  Repub 
licans  throughout  the  country.  The  newspapers  re 
printed  it  widely,  and  made  it  the  subject  of  favor 
able  comment.  Among  the  letters  that  came  to  Reed 
was  the  following :  — 

July  31,  1896. 

DEAR  TOM  :  —  Your  speech  was  magnificent.  You  struck 
the  keynote  exactly.  We  must  not  in  any  way  ignore  the 
tariff;  but  we  must  put  our  main  effort  on  finance. 

Oh,  Lord!  what  would  I  not  give  if  only  you  were  our  stand 
ard-bearer;  and,  as  that  is  impossible,  if  only  the  managers 
would  follow  on  the  lines  that  you  have  pointed  out. 

Faithfully  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 
HON.  THOMAS  B.  REED, 
Pine  Point,  Me. 

Probably  the  country  was  never  before  so  thoroughly 
canvassed  as  in  the  campaign  of  1896.  From  the  one 
ocean  to  the  other  there  was  scarcely  a  village  that  did 
not  have  its  political  rallies  on  both  sides,  and  in  the 
great  cities  and  larger  towns  there  was  a  steady  suc 
cession  of  meetings  during  the  month  and  a  half  pre- 


si 

d  § 

J     02 


THE  SECOND  SPEAKERSHIP  229 

ceding  the  election.  The  result  of  this  extraordinary 
activity  was  an  enormous  vote,  probably  much  the 
largest  on  the  basis  of  population  that  has  ever  been 
cast  in  the  country.  Bryan  was  decisively  defeated 
on  the  electoral  vote,  and  still  more  decisively  on  the 
popular  vote;  but  at  no  election  either  before  or  since 
1896  has  his  party,  whether  victorious  or  defeated, 
polled  so  large  a  vote  as  was  cast  for  him.  The  result 
of  the  election  was  to  give  the  Republicans  not  only 
the  Presidency  but  the  control  of  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress,  and  therefore  to  confer  upon  them  the  undivided 
responsibility  for  the  government  of  the  country. 

During  the  second  period  of  Reed's  Speakership 
there  was  a  Congressional  excursion  to  Monticello. 
That  excursion  has  no  importance  here  except  for  the 
following  fragment  in  Reed's  handwriting  relating 
an  incident  of  the  trip  to  which  Senator  Hoar  was  a 
party.  It  may  be  said  in  explanation  that  when  these 
two  men  met  socially  each  was  pretty  apt  to  have  his 
say  about  the  House  to  which  the  other  belonged. 

Was  chaffing  Brother  Hoar  about  the  Senate,  much  to  the 
delight  of  Mrs.  Hoar,  when  the  Senator  said :  — 

"Mr.  Speaker,  have  you  read  the  new  edition  of  ^Esop's 
'Fables,'  recently  translated  out  of  the  original  Greek?" 

"No,"  said  the  Speaker,  "I  have  not  seen  it." 

"Well,"  said  the  Senator,  "there  is  a  fable  there  which 
reads  like  this:  Once  there  was  a  lunatic  asylum  with  a 
keeper  — " 

Said  the  Speaker,  interrupting,  "Oh,  I  know  how  original 
that  Greek  is,  and  I  think  I  could  name  the  translator." 

"Well,"  said  Hoar,  "  once  there  was  a  lunatic  asylum  with 
a  keeper,  and  one  of  the  inmates  proposed  a  resolution  that 


230  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

they  should  all  take  off  their  strait-jackets.  Then  they  all 
rose,  each  one  reaching  for  his  jacket,  but  seeing  all  the  others 
do  the  same,  each  one  realized  the  damage  likely  to  ensue, 
sat  down,  and  all  unanimously  voted  against  the  resolution. 
Then  the  keeper  pointed  out  to  the  country  how  perfectly 
free  these  people  were." 

"But,"  said  the  Speaker  sweetly,  "you  have  forgotten  the 
moral.  Let  me  translate  it  out  of  still  more  original  Greek. 
'  Moral.  This  teaches  that  a  lunatic  asylum  with  a  keeper 
is  much  better  than  a  Senate  without.'" 


CHAPTER  XX 

WAR  —  THE   PHILIPPINES 

WITH  the  inauguration  of  McKinley  there  came  to  an 
end  that  balanced  condition  of  the  parties  which  had 
existed  since  the  first  Congress  of  Grant's  second  term. 
Only  for  six  years  of  that  interval  had  the  President 
and  both  Houses  been  in  accord  politically,  and  at  no 
time  was  the  agreement  much  stronger  than  nomi 
nal.  The  party  majority  was  so  slender  in  the  one 
House  or  the  other,  and  sometimes  in  both,  that  no 
administration  ever  had  a  really  free  hand.  But  the 
Republican  majority  in  the  first  Congress  under  Mc 
Kinley  was  not  merely  ample  —  it  was  so  large  as  to 
invite  extreme  party  legislation.  Events  however  were 
destined  to  shape  themselves  so  that  after  the  first 
session  of  this  Congress  new  issues  came  forward  and 
party  lines  were  for  the  time  obliterated. 

Almost  immediately  after  his  inauguration  the 
President  called  the  Congress  together  in  extraordinary 
session  to  revise  the  tariff.  Reed  was  again  chosen 
Speaker,  receiving  200  votes  against  114  for  Joseph 
W.  Bailey  of  Texas.  That  the  President  and  Congress 
were  fully  in  accord  on  the  tariff  was  at  once  shown. 
On  the  opening  day  Dingley  introduced  a  tariff  bill, 
amid  the  applause  of  his  side,  and  a  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means  was  at  once  appointed  to  consider 


232  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

it.  Three  days  later  he  reported  the  bill  back  to  the 
House,  and  in  July  it  had  finally  passed  both  Houses 
and  become  a  law.  The  bill  was  an  expression  of 
the  extreme  reaction  from  the  Democratic  tariff 
which  preceded  it.  The  average  of  duties  on  dutiable 
goods  was  lower  than  that  of  the  McKinley  law,  but 
under  the  broader  and  fairer  test  there  was  little  dif 
ference  between  the  two  measures  in  the  average  duty 
on  all  goods  coming  into  the  country,  both  dutiable 
and  free.  It  would  doubtless  have  been  better  party 
policy  and  would  have  injured  no  interest  if  the  range 
of  duties  had  been  made  lower.  With  the  details  of 
the  measure  Reed  had  nothing  to  do  and  he  probably 
knew  nothing  about  them,  but  undoubtedly  he  fully 
indorsed  the  protective  character  of  the  bill. 

But  the  routine  of  the  work  of  this  Congress  was  des 
tined  to  be  broken  by  an  event  which  startled  the  whole 
world.  The  rebellion  in  the  Island  of  Cuba  against  the 
authority  of  Spain  had  been  proceeding  with  varying 
fortunes.  It  had  at  last  been  checked  and  appeared  to 
be  approaching  the  point  of  suppression.  The  United 
States  battleship  Maine,  doubtless  for  some  friendly 
purpose,  had  been  sent  to  Havana.  During  the  night 
of  February  15,  1898,  while  lying  at  anchor  in  the 
harbor  of  that  city,  the  ship  was  suddenly  blown  up 
by  some  agency  of  extraordinary  force.  The  country 
was  at  once  stirred  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  con 
clusion  most  commonly  assumed  was  that  the  ship  had 
been  blown  up  by  Spaniards,  and  that  Spain  was  re 
sponsible  for  the  deed.  In  fact  this  conclusion  was 


WAR  — THE  PHILIPPINES  233 

gravely  stated  in  speeches  in  Congress.  The  popular 
impulse  was  to  rush  into  war.  The  administration  at 
once  ordered  an  inquiry  by  a  board  of  naval  officers, 
and  asked  for  a  suspension  of  judgment.  This  was 
commendable,  but  as  another  power  was  vitally  con 
cerned,  it  would  have  been  better  to  go  further  and 
admit  her  under  proper  conditions  to  participate  in  the 
investigation  or  at  least  to  be  represented.  The  Board 
of  Inquiry  reported  that  the  destruction  of  the  ship 
had  been  caused  by  an  external  explosion  and  this 
report  was  speedily  followed  by  legislation  that  made 
war  inevitable. 

Reed  was  firmly  against  war.  While  he  was  not  a 
"peace-at-any-price"  statesman,  he  was  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  barbarism  of  war  and  its  antago 
nism  to  the  spirit  of  the  age.  He  knew  also  that  al 
though  war  might  settle  the  issue  over  which  it  was 
waged  it  was  liable  to  leave  new  and  more  difficult 
problems  in  its  train.  He  exerted  his  personal  influence 
with  members  to  the  breaking-point  and  helped  delay 
the  outbreak.  And  after  a  resolution  had  passed  the 
one  House  and  had  been  amended  by  the  other,  he 
used  his  power  of  appointment  to  select  conservative 
conferees  on  the  part  of  the  House. 

To  do  the  President  justice,  he  was  also  opposed  to 
war.  Even  after  he  knew  the  contents  of  the  report  of 
the  naval  board  he  summoned  members  of  both  Houses 
to  the  White  House  and  urged  them  to  stay  action. 
At  the  last  his  message  to  Congress  recommended  a 
course  which  would  have  left  the  question  open  for 


234  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

diplomatic  negotiation.  He  angered  some  of  the  ex 
treme  advocates  of  war  who  denounced  him  in  the 
cloak  rooms  and  lobbies  of  the  Capitol  for  his  last 
efforts  to  maintain  peace.  The  spectators  would  troop 
from  the  galleries  of  one  chamber  to  those  of  the  other 
as  the  conference  report  passed  to  and  fro  between 
the  Houses  and  as  the  one  House  or  the  other  thus 
became  the  centre  of  interest.  After  an  exciting  ses 
sion  running  far  into  the  night  the  report  of  the 
conference  was  finally  agreed  to  in  both  Houses,  and 
an  ultimatum  was  directed  against  Spain  which  she 
could  not  accept  and  which  made  war  a  certainty. 
The  final  vote  in  the  House  was  311  in  favor  of  the 
report  to  6  against  it. 

Three  days  later,  when  the  first  practical  war  meas 
ure  was  brought  before  the  House,  in  the  shape  of 
a  resolution  to  prohibit  the  export  of  coal  or  other 
war  material,  Reed  called  to  the  Chair  one  of  the  six 
members  who  had  voted  against  the  conference  re 
port  and  as  he  passed  the  gavel  to  him,  said :  "  I  envy 
you  the  luxury  of  your  vote.  I  was  where  I  could  not 
do  it." 

After  the  country  was  at  war  Reed  supported  the 
measures  necessary  to  its  prosecution.  When  how 
ever  it  was  proposed  to  annex  the  Sandwich  Islands  as 
a  war  measure  he  refused  to  follow.  The  naval  power 
of  Spain  in  the  Philippines  had  been  completely  de 
stroyed,  and  it  appeared  no  more  necessary  to  annex 
Hawaii  in  order  to  conquer  Spain  or  to  promote  the 
purposes  for  which  we  went  to  war,  than  it  was  to  an- 


WAR— THE  PHILIPPINES  235 

nex  the  moon.  There  were  powerful  interests  in  the 
United  States  that  were  very  willing  to  make  the  war 
a  pretext  for  annexation.  The  production  of  sugar  was 
an  important  industry  in  Hawaii,  and  the  plantations 
were  largely  owned  in  the  United  States.  There  could 
be  no  more  certain  road  to  wealth  than  to  produce  sugar 
on  tropical  soil  and  with  tropical  labor,  and  to  be 
permitted  to  sell  it  free  of  all  duty  in  a  great  market 
made  artificially  high  by  a  tariff  levied  against  all  other 
foreign  sugars.  The  annexation  of  the  islands  meant 
the  perpetual  admission  of  their  sugar  free  into  the 
United  States  in  place  of  the  temporary  arrangement 
which  had  been  adopted  to  that  end.  Then,  too,  with 
out  regard  to  the  war  with  Spain,  there  was  a  powerful 
party  in  the  United  States  in  favor  of  acquiring  over 
sea  territory  in  order  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the 
country. 

One  of  the  foundation  principles  of  Reed's  political 
belief  was  the  right  of  self-government  in  communi 
ties.  It  was  not  seriously  proposed  that  the  islands 
should  be  admitted  as  a  state  into  the  American  Union, 
to  participate,  at  some  time  in  the  future,  in  the  com 
mon  government  of  all;  and  their  status  therefore 
would  be  that  of  a  vassal  nation  subject  to  the  sover 
eignty  and  control  of  the  imperial  state.  Reed  took  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  very  seriously.  Many 
years  before  the  annexation  was  proposed,  he  had  said 
in  a  speech  in  the  House  that  "the  best  government 
of  which  a  people  is  capable  is  a  government  which  they 
establish  for  themselves.  With  all  its  imperfections, 


236  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

with  all  its  shortcomings,  it  is  always  better  adapted 
to  them  than  any  other  government,  even  though  in 
vented  by  wiser  men!"  He  was  therefore  opposed  to 
annexation,  whether  the  Sandwich  Islands  only  were 
considered,  or  whether  the  proceeding  was  to  be  the 
entering  wedge  for  a  more  distant  and  daring  applica 
tion  of  imperialism. 

The  resolution  to  annex  Hawaii  was  brought  for 
ward  in  the  House  after  repeated  attempts  to  consider 
it  had  failed.  Reed  would  exercise  no  discretion  which 
he  had  under  the  rules  to  give  recognition  to  a  motion 
to  call  up  the  resolution.  Finally  it  acquired  the  right  of 
way  under  the  rules  and  came  before  the  House.  It  was 
not  the  custom  for  the  Speaker  to  vote.  Reed  was  at 
home  ill  when  the  vote  was  taken.  For  the  two-fold  rea 
son  therefore  of  custom  and  absence,  there  was  no  neces 
sity  for  his  position  to  be  announced.  But  the  Speaker 
pro  tempore,  Mr.  Dalzell,  at  Reed's  request  announced 
to  the  House  that  if  the  Speaker  were  present  he  would 
vote  nay.  It  is  doubtful  if  such  a  course  had  ever  be 
fore  been  taken  by  a  Speaker. 

In  the  summer  of  1898  Reed  stood  for  election  to  the 
House  for  the  twelfth  time,  and  received  the  great  ma 
jority  that  he  had  become  accustomed  to  receive  dur 
ing  the  last  half-dozen  elections  at  which  he  was  a 
candidate.  But  the  difference  between  him  and  the  ad 
ministration  became  more  serious,  as  the  result  of  an 
issue  which  the  war  had  brought  forward.  The  war 
with  Spain  had  proved  a  most  unequal  contest,  be 
cause  of  the  vast  difference  between  the  resources  of 


WAR  — THE  PHILIPPINES  237 

the  two  nations.  In  the  treaty  of  peace  we  purchased 
the  Philippines  and  thereby  purchased  a  war  which 
proved  much  more  deadly  than  that  which  the 
treaty  had  brought  to  an  end.  The  Philippines  were 
in  rebellion  against  Spain  just  as  Cuba  had  been. 
The  United  States  went  to  war  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  securing  the  independence  of  Cuba.  The  latter 
country  was  within  the  traditional  radius  of  our  polit 
ical  action,  and  from  her  nearness  and  her  relation  to 
the  American  people  they  were  deeply  interested  in  her 
welfare.  On  the  other  hand,  probably  not  one  person 
out  of  ten  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  had 
ever  heard  of  the  Philippines  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  war.  They  were  situated  in  the  hemisphere  in  whose 
affairs  it  was  our  traditional  policy  not  to  interfere. 
They  were  on  the  farther  side  of  the  greatest  ocean  in 
the  world,  and  their  acquirement  would  destroy  the 
invulnerability  established  by  our  two  ocean  bulwarks 
and  profoundly  affect  our  military  problem.  We  had 
made  ourselves  their  allies  in  their  war  for  independ 
ence,  and  had  taken  their  leader  from  Hong  Kong  to 
Manila  on  our  fleet.  Could  we  therefore  purchase  and 
assert  a  title  against  which  we  had  encouraged  themt 
in  rebellion?  Reed  profoundly  disbelieved  in  the  exist 
ence  of  a  colonial  theory  of  our  Constitution,  or  in 
making  an  application  of  such  a  theory  to  the  Phil 
ippines  by  taking  on  the  "last  colonial  curse  of 
Spain." 

When  therefore  the  islands  had  been  acquired  from 
Spain  by  treaty  made  by  the  President  with  the  advice 


238  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

and  consent  of  the  Senate,  and  war  had  been  entered 
upon  for  the  purpose  of  subjugating  their  inhabitants 
to  our  control,  he  determined  to  retire  from  public  life. 
He  said  to  his  trusted  friend  and  secretary,  Asher  C. 
Hinds,  "  I  have  tried,  perhaps  not  always  successfully, 
to  make  the  acts  of  my  public  life  accord  with  my  con 
science,  and  I  cannot  now  do  this  thing."  He  had  been 
elected  to  the  succeeding  Congress  and  was  certain  to 
be  chosen  again  to  the  Speakership,  an  office  of  which 
he  once  said  that  it  had  but  one  superior  and  no  peer. 
But  he  put  forth  a  brief  address  to  the  Republicans  of 
his  district  announcing  his  retirement. 

While  I  am  naturally  repugnant  [he  said]  to  obtrude  my 
self  again  upon  public  attention  even  here  at  home,  I  am 
sure  no  one  would  expect  me  to  leave  the  First  Maine  District 
after  so  long  a  service  without  some  word  expressing  to  you 
my  appreciation  of  your  friendship  and  my  gratitude  for  your 
generous  treatment.  Words  alone  are  quite  inadequate  and 
I  must  appeal  to  your  memories.  During  three  and  twenty 
years  of  political  life  not  always  peaceful,  you  have  never 
questioned  one  single  public  act  of  mine.  Other  men  have  had 
to  look  after  their  districts,  but  my  district  has  always  looked 
after  me.  This,  in  the  land  where  I  was  born,  and  where 
you  know  my  shortcomings  as  well  as  I  do  myself,  gives  me 
a  right  to  be  proud  of  my  relations  with  you.  No  honors  are 
ever  quite  like  those  which  come  from  home.  It  would  not  be 
just  for  me  not  to  add  also  my  thanks  to  those  Democrats 
who  have  so  often  given  me  their  help.  This  I  can  do  even  in 
a  letter  to  Republicans,  for  they  and  you  know  that  no  sail 
has  been  trimmed  for  any  breeze  nor  any  doubtful  flag  ever 
flown. 

Office  as  a  "ribbon  to  stick  in  your  coat"  is  worth  no 
body's  consideration.  Office  as  opportunity  is  worth  all  con 
sideration.  That  opportunity  you  have  given  me,  un tram 
meled,  in  the  fullest  and  amplest  manner,  and  I  return  you 


WAR  — THE  PHILIPPINES  239 

sincerest  thanks.   If  I  have  deserved  any  praise  it  belongs 
of  right  to  you. 

Whatever  may  happen  I  am  sure  the  First  Maine  Dis 
trict  will  always  be  true  to  the  principles  of  liberty,  self- 
government,  and  the  rights  of  man. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

WRITINGS — WIT  — CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  LEADER 
AND   DEBATER 

REED  occasionally  wrote  articles  for  the  magazines 
and  weekly  journals,  chiefly  for  the  "North  American 
Review"  and  the  "Saturday  Evening  Post."  He  also 
made  speeches  upon  many  occasions,  at  college  anni 
versaries,  and  before  societies  that  were  not  political 
in  character.  These  speeches  and  writings  would  fill 
a  considerable  volume,  and  they  are  well  worthy  of 
being  collected  and  preserved.  They  were  prepared 
with  much  greater  care  than  his  Congressional  speeches, 
many  of  which  were  offhand;  and  for  that  very  reason 
perhaps  they  have  less  movement  and  are  not  so  easily 
read.  The  form  of  his  extemporaneous  speech  was 
faultless  and  his  mind  worked  at  its  best  under  the 
stimulus  of  a  hard  fight  and  a  great  occasion.  The 
tendency  to  philosophize  which  strongly  marked  his 
speaking  was  even  more  strongly  shown  in  what  he 
wrote.  Space  will  obviously  not  permit  the  reproduc 
tion  here  of  the  outline  of  argument  of  any  of  his  pre 
pared  orations  or  magazine  articles.  The  following 
quotations  taken  here  and  there  will  serve  to  give  a 
touch  of  his  style  and  thought. 

We  will  not  press  too  strongly  on  the  seven  fat  and  seven 
lean  kine  which  came  up  out  of  the  sea  in  the  dream  of 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       241 

Pharaoh,  but  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  that  dream  had 
its  origin  in  actual  facts,  and  that  the  alternation  of  good 
times  and  hard  times  antedates  the  pyramids. 

Ultimately,  the  people  govern.  There  are  ostentatious 
actors  here  and  there,  who  stud  the  stage  with  panoply  or 
with  clanging  arms,  who  seem  to  do  many  things;  but  in  the 
end  the  popular  feeling  has  its  way. 

The  President  of  Harvard,  in  his  lamented  entrance  into 
the  Democratic  party,  was  evidently  thinking  more  of  the 
courage  of  his  convictions  than  the  sense  of  them. 

Why  should  the  President  of  Harvard  make  so  great  a 
parade  amid  the  applause  of  the  unthinking  of  his  unwilling 
ness  to  hold  office?  Has  that  ceased  to  be  honorable  in  this 
country?  When  the  noble  bead-roll  of  Harvard  worthies  is 
told,  are  politicians,  who  are  but  statesmen  in  the  making, 
to  be  hereafter  omitted?  Why  should  a  man's  advice,  who  is 
not  and  never  intends  to  be  a  candidate  for  office,  be  so  much 
loftier  than  all  others? 

A  tariff  bill  could  be  framed,  we  think,  which  would  be 
free  from  all  the  errors  of  that  celebrated  bill  and  retain  its 
virtues.  Where  would  you  enact  such  a  bill?  Why,  in  your 
own  mind,  of  course.  Unfortunately,  a  bill  enacted  in  the 
mind  has  no  extra-territorial  force.  A  bill  enacted  by  Con 
gress,  like  the  progress  of  the  world,  is  the  result  of  a  fierce 
conflict  of  opposing  human  interests,  and  must  be  so. 

Just  think  of  a  non-partisan  Free  Trader  sitting  on  a  tariff 
tax!  Of  course  he  would  be  above  any  prejudice  except  his 
own. 

A  tariff  bill  at  any  time  is  not  and  cannot  be  the  creature 
of  one  mind.  It  means  the  result  of  a  contest  by  all  interests 
and  all  minds.  Hence,  whenever  any  man  thinks  of  a  tariff 
he  would  make,  he  always  thinks  of  a  tariff  bill  which  will 
never  be  enacted. 


242  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Necessities  may  mean  anything  men  are  willing  to  work 
for.  .  .  .  Even  a  peacock  feather  is  a  necessity  in  the  early 
stages  of  glory. 

No  form  of  government  can  be  based  on  systematic  injus 
tice.  The  election  of  Congressmen  is  a  national  not  a  local 
matter.  If  it  be  a  race-question,  is  there  any  reason  why  the 
white  man  in  the  South  should  have  two  votes  to  my  one? 
Is  he  alone  of  mortals  to  eat  his  cake  and  have  it  too?  Is  he 
to  suppress  his  negro  and  have  him  also?  Among  all  his  reme 
dies  he  has  never  proposed  to  surrender  the  representation 
which  he  owes  to  the  very  negro  whose  vote  he  refuses.  The 
negro  is  human  enough  to  be  represented,  but  not  human 
enough  to  have  his  vote  counted. 

Some  men  like  to  stand  erect,  and  some  men,  even  after 
they  are  rich  and  in  high  place,  like  to  crawl. 

The  equal  rights  of  women  have  but  just  reached  the 
region  of  possibilities.  Men  have  only  just  left  off  sneering 
and  have  but  just  begun  to  consider.  Every  step  of  progress 
from  the  harem  and  the  veil  to  free  society  and  property 
holding  has  been  steadily  fought  by  the  vanity,  selfishness 
and  indolence,  not  only  of  mankind  but  of  womankind  also. 

It  is  a  fact  that  it  [conservatism]  halts  all  truth  for  dis 
cussion,  but  it  equally  halts  all  untruth.  The  truth  sur 
vives,  the  untruth  perishes.  Men  have  but  little  capacity 
for  the  recognition  of  truth  at  first  sight,  and  of  a  hundred 
things  which  seem  plausible,  it  is  fortunate  if  one  be  true. 
Hence  it  is  well  that  all  things  should  be  held  at  arm's  length 
and  stand  the  scrutiny  of  our  prejudices  and  interests,  of 
our  religion  and  our  skepticism. 

We  make  more  progress  by  owning  our  faults  than  by  al 
ways  dwelling  on  our  virtues. 

The  statesman,  though  still  without  guile,  lies  less,  seldom 
murders,  loves  liberty  more  and  powrer  less.  Mercantile 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       243 

morality  is  higher,  attorneys  pettifog  less  and  help  justice 
more. 

When  you  don't  know  what  to  do,  don't  do  it.  If  the 
proposition  is  to  press  an  oak  back  into  an  acorn,  it  had 
better  be  carefully  considered. 

The  best  of  us  only  pass  from  one  inaccuracy  to  another, 
and  so  do  the  worst,  but  on  the  whole,  the  last  inaccuracy 
is  nearer  the  truth  than  the  old  one. 

When  grief  has  changed  into  peace,  and  the  enduring  re 
sult  has  made  the  sorrows  undergone  merely  a  fading  mem 
ory  instead  of  a  grinding  present  torture,  only  then  do  even 
the  saints  realize  that  sainthood  can  come  in  no  other  way. 

He  thus  rendered  the  phrase,  omne  ignotum  pro 
magnifico :  — 

Everything  we  do  not  know  anything  about  always  looks 
big.  The  human  creature  is  imaginative.  If  he  sees  a  tail  dis 
appearing  over  a  fence,  he  images  the  whole  beast  and  usually 
images  the  wrong  beast.  .  .  .  Whenever  we  take  a  trip  into  the 
realms  of  fancy,  we  see  a  good  many  things  that  never  were. 

Speaking  of  a  panic  in  Wall  Street  which  squeezed 
the  inflation  out  of  values,  he  said :  — 

Water  flowed  down  both  sides  of  the  street. 

It  took  four  thousand  years  of  pagan  and  fifteen  centu 
ries  of  Christian  civilization  to  produce  a  two-pronged  fork, 
and  another  century  to  bring  it  into  use. 

We  endure  filth  diseases  thousands  of  years  and  call  them 
visitations  of  God,  and  when  some  one  brighter  than  the 
rest  discovers  the  cause  and  proposes  the  remedy  we  listen, 
in  early  ages,  with  the  horror  suitable  to  greet  a  man  who 
wishes  to  interfere  with  God's  methods  in  the  universe. 


244  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Never  expect  toleration  from  a  crowd  that  has  other  views 
and  has  them  vividly. 

Wrong  is  never  so  weak  as  in  its  hour  of  triumph. 

If  we  ever  learn  to  treat  the  living  with  the  tenderness 
with  which  we  instinctively  treat  the  dead,  we  shall  then 
have  a  civilization  well  worth  distributing. 

The  description  of  the  view  across  Portland  Harbor, 
given  in  his  Portland  Centennial  address,  will  serve  as 
an  example  of  a  different  vein :  — 

The  long  slope  of  grassy  verdure  varied  by  the  darker- 
foliage  of  the  trees  spreads  wide  to  the  water's  edge.  Thei* 
begins  the  bright  sparkle  of  the  summer  sea,  that  many- 
twinkling  smile  of  ocean,  that  countless  laughter  of  the 
waves  which  has  lighted  up  the  heart  of  man  centuries  since 
^Eschylus  died,  and  centuries  before  he  lived.  Across  the 
sunlit  waters,  dotted  with  the  white  sails  or  seamed  with  the 
bubbling  foam  of  the  steamers'  track,  past  the  wharves, 
bristling  with  masts  and  noisy  with  commerce,  the  gaze 
falls  upon  the  houses  sloping  quickly  upward  in  the  center 
and  becoming  more  and  more  embowered  in  trees  as  they 
climb  the  hills  at  either  end.  Following  the  tall  spires  the 
eye  loses  itself  in  the  bright  blue  sky  beyond.  ...  If  you  shut 
your  eyes  and  let  the  lofty  spires  disappear,  the  happy  homes 
glisten  out  of  sight,  and  the  wharves  give  place  to  a  curving 
line  of  shelving,  pebbly  beach;  if  you  imagine  the  bright 
water  unvexed  by  traffic,  the  tall  peninsula  covered  with 
forests  and  bushy  swamps,  with  the  same  expanse  of  island 
and  of  sea,  and  the  whole  scene  undisturbed  by  any  sound 
save  the  clanging  cries  of  innumerable  birds  and  water 
fowl,  you  will  be  looking  upon  Machigonne  as  it  appeared  to 
George  Cleve. 

In  society  Reed  was  one  of  the  most  delightful  of 
men.  His  talk,  usually  merry  and  witty,  but  sometimes 
serious  and  wise,  made  him  the  center  of  any  free  social 


CHARACTERISTICS   AS  A  DEBATER        245 

group  of  which  he  happened  to  be  a  member.  He  was 
overwhelmed  with  invitations  to  dinner,  and  wherever 
he  dined  he  was  sure  to  be  the  life  of  the  company. 
He  established  a  primacy  in  witty  table-talk  at  Wash 
ington,  which  no  one  questioned.  But  he  had  none  of 
the  airs  of  the  social  autocrat,  and  never  took  posses 
sion  of  any  company.  What  he  said  that  was  serious 
was  said  graciously  and  without  sermonizing.  He  had  a 
loud  and  merry  laugh,  and  it  was  never  louder  or  mer 
rier  than  when  the  joke  appeared  to  be  on  himself, 
which  was  not  often.  And  mingled  with  his  wit  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  social  philosophy.  If  it  had  been  his 
fortune  to  be  followed  about  by  some  such  faithful 
chronicler  as  followed  Johnson,  the  result  would  have 
been  a  most  interesting  and  amusing  work.  It  is  a  mis 
fortune  that  such  a  mass  of  brilliant  talk  should  have 
perished.  Reed  was  too  busy  a  man  to  write  out  ac 
counts  of  dinner-parties  that  he  attended.  And  since 
the  long  social  letter  has  almost  disappeared  and  the 
diary  also,  there  is  little  probability  that  chance  reports 
of  his  talk  will  hereafter  appear.  The  diaries  which 
he  kept  were  fragmentary,  and  they  dealt  very  little 
with  his  own  part  in  table  conversation. 

There  was  nothing  studied  about  his  wit, — it  was 
spontaneous  and  was  entirely  characteristic  of  him. 
Whenever  there  was  occasion  for  its  exercise,  it  was 
ready,  and  was  always  sufficient  for  the  occasion.  A 
mere  quotation  can  do  him  little  justice  because  it  is 
impossible  to  reproduce  his  personal  characteristics. 
His  slow  enunciation  and  drawl,  which  were  not  in 


246  THOMAS  BRACKET!  REED 

the  least  affectations  but  were  born  in  him,  his  amia 
bility  of  manner,  his  overflowing  and  contagious  good- 
humor,  and  his  gravity  when  he  was  serious,  all  were 
exactly  adapted  to  what  he  said  and  lent  much  force 
to  it. 

What  has  been  presented  in  the  foregoing  pages  sup 
plemented  by  a  few  anecdotes  may  give  a  fair  idea  of 
the  quality  of  his  wit.  There  was  something  in  the 
temperament  of  Mr.  Springer,  a  member  from  Illinois, 
that  called  out  Reed's  sarcasm.  Reed  once  spoke  of  him 
in  debate  as  a  gentleman  who  "on  account  of  his  many 
virtues  had  been  made  Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means 
and  leader  of  the  House." 

Springer,  in  the  course  of  a  speech  one  day,  applying 
to  himself  an  ancient  and  oft-quoted  saying,  attributed 
to  Henry  Clay,  said,  "As  for  me,  I  would  rather  be 
right  than  be  President."  Reed  drawled  out  in  reply, 
"Well,  the  gentleman  will  never  be  either." 

One  day  in  one  of  the  House  lobbies,  with  many  of 
the  members  lounging  about,  General  Henderson  was 
chaffing  Reed  about  his  size  and  asked,  "How  much 
do  you  weigh,  Tom?"  Reed  replied  gravely  that  he 
weighed  one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  pounds,  which 
was  probably  seventy-five  pounds  under  his  real 
weight.  "Oh,  we  all  know  better  than  that,"  said 
Henderson.  "Well,"  said  Reed,  "I'll  own  up  to  two 
hundred  pounds,  but  no  gentleman  ever  weighs  over 
two  hundred." 

Once  the  House  was  making  an  effort  to  secure  a 
quorum,  and,  as  is  usually  done  in  such  cases,  tele- 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       247 

grams  were  sent  to  members  who  were  absent.  One 
man,  who  was  delayed  by  a  flood  on  the  railroad, 
telegraphed  Reed,  saying,  "Washout  on  line,  can't 
come."  Reed  telegraphed  back,  "Buy  another  shirt 
and  come  on  next  train." 

He  called  on  the  family  of  a  member  who  was  very 
ill,  and  when  he  inquired  about  his  condition  the  mem 
ber's  wife  replied  that  he  was  out  of  his  head  much  of 
the  time  and  did  not  know  what  he  was  talking  about. 
"He  ought  to  come  up  to  the  House,"  replied  Reed; 
"  they  are  all  that  way  up  there." 

When  Reed  was  Speaker,  he  overruled  on  an  occa 
sion  a  point  of  order  made  by  a  very  clever  Democratic 
member.  The  latter  discovered  that  Reed,  in  his  lit 
tle  book  on  parliamentary  procedure,  called  "Reed's 
Rules,"  had  taken  a  different  position,  and  thinking 
to  confound  the  Speaker,  he  walked  in  triumph  to  the 
desk,  book  in  hand,  and  pointing  to  the  passage,  asked 
the  Speaker  to  read  it.  After  the  Speaker  had  read  it, 
the  member  asked  him  to  explain  it.  "Oh,"  replied 
Reed  coolly,  "the  book  is  wrong." 

He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  our  war  with  the  Philip 
pines,  and  he  expressed  his  idea  of  the  glory  of  the  war 
in  a  concrete  case  in  the  following  fashion.  One  morn 
ing,  when  the  newspapers  had  printed  a  report  that 
our  army  had  captured  Aguinaldo's  young  son,  Reed 
came  to  his  office  and  found  his  law  partner  at  work  at 
his  desk.  Reed  affected  surprise  and  said,  "What,  are 
you  working  to-day?  I  should  think  you  would  be  cele 
brating.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  the  American  army 


248  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

has  captured  the  infant  son  of  Aguinaldo,  and  at  last 
accounts  was  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  mother." 

He  once  heard  a  man  warmly  arguing  in  favor  of 
taking  the  Philippines  on  the  ground  that  we  should 
take  American  freedom  to  them.  "Yes,"  said  Reed, 
"canned  freedom." 

Alluding  to  two  of  his  colleagues  in  the  House,  he 
said : "  They  never  open  their  mouths  without  subtract 
ing  from  the  sum  of  human  knowledge." 

When  his  daughter  Katherine,  or  "Kitty"  as  he 
called  her,  was  a  little  girl  she  had  a  cat  to  which  she 
was  much  devoted.  One  day  the  kitten  was  sleeping 
in  Reed's  chair  when  he  was  about  to  sit  down.  His 
daughter  in  horror  gave  the  chair  a  sudden  pull  to  save 
the  cat  from  annihilation  and  as  a  result  Reed  sat 
down  heavily  on  the  floor.  It  was  a  rather  serious 
happening  for  a  man  of  his  size,  and  even  a  lesser  man 
might  easily  have  lost  his  temper.  But  the  only  notice 
he  took  of  the  matter  was  to  say  gravely  after  he  had 
got  on  his  feet,  "Kitty,  remember  that  it  is  easier  to 
get  another  cat  than  another  father." 

Once  when  he  was  speaking  to  the  House,  a  member 
insisted  on  interrupting  him  to  ask  a  question.  Reed 
yielded  and  the  member  asked  a  partisan  question 
which  had  very  little  point.  Reed  most  effectively 
disposed  of  the  matter  by  saying:  "The  gentleman  from 
Maryland  is  of  course  not  the  flower  of  our  intelligence, 
but  he  knows  better  than  to  ask  such  a  question  as 
that." 

During  one  of  his  campaigns  he  was  speaking  at 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS   A  DEBATER       249 

South  Berwick  in  his  district,  and  he  was  near  the  end 
of  the  speech.  The  audience  was  hanging  upon  the 
words  of  his  peroration  when  a  man  came  down  in  his 
seat  with  a  crash.  Such  an  incident  would  often  dis 
concert  a  speaker,  and  the  "last  magnificent  para 
graph"  would  be  spoken  with  little  effect,  if  spoken  at 
all.  Reed  at  once  secured  again  the  command  of  his 
audience  by  saying,  "Well,  you  must  at  least  credit 
me  with  making  a  knockdown  argument." 

Very  much  used  to  be  said  about  Washington  ma 
laria,  and  one  day  some  one  suggested  to  Reed  that 
the  term  was  employed  often  to  cover  the  effects  of 
drinking  too  much  whisky.  "Washington  malaria," 
replied  Reed,  "  can  be  bought  for  about  two  dollars 
a  gallon." 

Reed  was  a  master,  probably  unrivaled,  in  the  art 
of  making  a  five-minute  speech.  There  was  much  wis 
dom  as  well  as  drollery  in  his  remark  one  evening  to  a 
member  who  was  a  really  eloquent  but  somewhat  dif 
fuse  speaker:  " ,  you  do  not  understand  the  theory 

of  five-minute  debate.  The  object  is  to  convey  to  the 
House  in  the  space  of  five  minutes  either  information 
or  misinformation.  You  have  consumed  several  pe 
riods  of  five  minutes  this  afternoon  without  doing 
either." l 

The  reputation  of  being  a  wit  or  humorist  is  a  dis 
astrous  reputation  for  one  to  achieve  in  our  national 
House  of  Representatives  and  probably  also  in  any 
other  field  of  our  public  life.  There  is  danger  that  such 

1  Henry  Cabot  Lodge's  article  on  Reed  in  the  Century  Magazine. 


250  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

a  character  will  never  afterwards  be  taken  seriously. 
More  than  one  man  of  a  wide  range  of  talents  has  begun 
his  career  with  a  "funny"  speech,  and  has  never  been 
able  to  outlive  its  influence,  however  solemn  he  might 
afterwards  appear,  or  however  learned  and  profound. 
That  Reed  was  never  in  the  slightest  danger  of  gaining 
such  a  reputation  is  one  proof  of  his  caliber.  While 
he  was  more  witty  and  could  be  more  humorous  than 
other  men,  his  wit  and  humor  were  only  weapons 
among  others  in  his  varied  arsenal  just  as  formidable 
of  their  kind,  and  their  use  was  never  indulged  in  for 
display,  but  was  severely  subordinated  to  the  require 
ments  of  the  debate.  In  a  parliamentary  battle  he  was 
not  merely  a  whole  army  corps,  but  a  whole  army,  with 
its  mighty  volume  of  musketry,  its  squadrons  of  cav 
alry,  and  its  pieces  of  great  ordnance  with  their  heavy 
weight  of  metal.  When  he  was  upon  the  floor  the 
House  received  just  what  the  occasion  demanded. 
The  opinion  of  Mr.  Lodge  is  worth  a  great  deal.  He 
has  been  closely  associated  during  a  long  public 
career  with  the  statesmen  and  orators  of  his  own 
country,  and  has  known  many  of  those  abroad.  He 
said  of  Reed:  "He  was  the  finest,  the  most  effective 
debater  that  I  have  ever  seen  or  heard."  And 
again  he  said:  "I  fully  appreciate  the  truth  of  Emer 
son's  doctrine  of  the  force  of  under-statement;  but  I 
cannot  express  my  own  belief  in  regard  to  Mr.  Reed 
without  also  saying  that  in  my  opinion  there  never 
has  been  a  greater  or  more  perfectly  equipped  leader 
in  any  parliamentary  body  at  any  period."  Familiar 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER        251 

also  as  he  was  with  Reed  in  social  as  well  as  in  public 
life,  his  word  is  weighty  when  he  says,  "No  more 
agreeable  companion  ever  lived.  Like  Dr.  Johnson  he 
loved  to  sit  and  have  his  talk  out,  and  no  one  was  ever 
better  to  listen  to  or  a  better  listener,  for  his  sym 
pathies  were  wide,  his  interests  unlimited,  and  nothing 
human  was  alien  to  him."  1 

There  could  not  have  been  a  better  judge  than 
Senator  George  F.  Hoar.  He  said  of  Reed:  — 

He  had  a  very  strong  hold  on  Massachusetts.  His  sin 
cerity,  his  simplicity,  his  inflexible  honesty,  his  courage  and 
his  sagacity,  as  well  as  his  wit,  of  a  kind  that  has  been 
peculiar  to  New  England  from  a  time  even  before  Dr. 
Franklin  down  to  Hosea  Biglow,  just  suited  the  taste  of  the 
people.  When  he  went  to  Europe  some  years  ago,  I  gave 
him  a  letter  to  Lowell.  They  sat  up  together  late  into  the 
morning  hours,  and  I  heard  from  both  of  the  delight  which 
each  of  them  took  in  that  night's  talk.  The  people  liked  to 
hear  him  on  public  questions  better  than  any  other  man, 
not  excepting  Elaine  or  McKinley. 

Mr.  John  Sharp  Williams  of  Mississippi,  who  had 
been  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  House, 
referred  to  Reed  as  "  that  ever  memorable  genius,  the 
ablest  running  debater  the  American  people  ever 
saw." 

Reed  delighted  to  have  his  joke  about  the  Senate, 
and  especially  about  long  debates  which  there  was  no 
rule  to  terminate,  even  when  the  great  majority  of  the 
Senate  itself  was  desirous  of  voting.  One  day  he  hap 
pened  to  enter  the  Chamber  when  a  Senator  was  de- 
1  In  the  Century  Magazine. 


252  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

livering  a  speech  with  nearly  all  the  seats  empty,  and 
Reed  ejaculated,  as  much  to  himself  as  to  the  member 
by  his  side,  "There  does  n't  seem  to  be  a  quorum  in 
the  divine  presence  to-day." 

In  one  of  his  unpublished  manuscripts  purporting 
to  be  a  "History  of  the  United  States,  published  in 
1940,"  he  says  that  the  people  had  grown  weary  of  the 
caliber  of  their  presidents  between  1880  and  1890,  and 
had  adopted  a  constitutional  amendment  providing 
that  they  should  be  chosen  by  the  Senate  out  of  the 
Senate  itself.  He  thus  describes  the  first  election:  — 

So  intense  was  the  public  excitement  that  the  whole 
nation  left  its  vocations,  flung  business  to  the  winds,  and 
assembled  in  front  of  the  Capitol  where,  in  the  open  day,  the 
tremendous  scene  of  the  choice  of  the  wisest  man  should  be 
made  by  and  out  of  the  wisest  body  of  men.  It  was  by  secret 
ballot,  so  that  no  possibility  of  influence  by  public  clamor 
could  disturb  the  serene  judgment  of  the  Immortals.  When 
the  ballots  had  been  collected  and  spread  out,  the  Chief 
Justice,  who  presided,  was  observed  to  hesitate  and  those 
nearest  could  see  by  his  pallor  that  something  unexpected 
had  happened.  But  with  a  strong  effort  he  rose  to  his  feet 
and  through  a  megaphone,  then  recently  invented  by  Edi 
son,  shouted  to  the  vast  multitude  the  astounding  result: 
seventy-six  Senators  had  each  received  one  vote.  For  a 
moment  a  stillness  as  of  death  settled  upon  the  multitude. 
Never  until  that  moment  had  the  people  realized  that,  like 
the  Deacon's  One  Hoss  Shay  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
was  one  level  mass  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  perfect  in  all  its 
parts,  and  radiant  from  North  to  South  with  that  light  of 
intelligence  which  never  shone  on  sea  or  shore. 

Among  his  papers  was  found  a  manuscript  on 
Imperialism,  apparently  written  during  the  negotia 
tion  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  while  McKinley  was 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       253 

vaguely  speaking  upon  his  Western  tour  about 
"Destiny."  It  weightily  states  his  position  upon  the 
wisdom  of  our  over-sea  expansion  and  is  worthy  of 
even  more  liberal  quotations  than  those  which  follow: 

History  probably  teaches  that  nations  have  their  destinies 
like  individuals,  and  the  unknown,  unanticipated  and  unex 
pected  has  so  large  a  part  in  it  that  wisdom  and  foresight  are 
but  small  factors  in  the  development  of  a  nation.  Never 
theless  what  foresight  we  have  and  what  wisdom  we  have 
acquired  we  must  exercise.  Otherwise  we  are  no  better  than 
the  beasts  of  the  field  to  whom  the  slaughter-house  is  a  sur 
prise  as  well  as  a  shock  and  which  they  doubtless,  being 
ignorant,  call  destiny  and  an  overruling  providence.  Escape 
they  cannot.  We  can. 

The  people  of  this  country  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  years 
have  with  one  accord  thought  themselves  singularly  fortunate 
in  the  great  men  who  were,  so  far  as  great  men  could  be, 
the  founders  of  the  republic,  and  yet  only  a  few  days  ago, 
with  the  tacit  and  also  vociferous  approval  of  the  American 
people,  an  English  writer  has  declared  that  "The  farewell 
address  of  Washington  has  ceased  to  be  the  compass  of  the 
statesman  and  become  the  curio  of  the  historian."  Such  a 
change  as  this  concisely  and  rhetorically  stated  deserves 
some  other  consideration  than  tumultuous  hurrahs  and  self- 
congratulation.  Six  months  ago  the  new  doctrine  was  not 
and  to-day  it  is  already  bursting  its  swaddling-clothes.  It 
seems,  moreover,  likely  that  we,  the  American  people,  will 
have  no  discussion  of  this  new  idea,  but  will  only  have  the 
poor  privilege  of  saying  what  we  will  do  with  it  and  nothing 
at  all  about  whether  we  will  have  it  or  not. 

Wisdom  of  course  did  not  die  with  forefathers  even  as  wise 
and  famous  as  were  ours.  The  world  does  not  roll  about  the 
sun  a  hundred  and  twenty  times  and  about  itself  forty  and 
four  thousand  times  without  evolving  conditions  and 
awakening  new  notions,  some  of  which  are  for  the  good  of  the 
world.  Nevertheless  all  new  notions  are  not  good.  Indeed 
we  know  that  most  of  them  are  bad  and  that  all  of  them 


254  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

should  pass  under  careful  scrutiny  before  being  put  into 
action.  The  spoken  and  even  the  written  word  may  be 
harmless  and  fly  away,  being  winged,  but  deeds  cannot 
depart  and  are  never  effaced  from  the  history  of  the  race. 
We  may  reclimb  heights  from  which  we  have  fallen,  but 
oftener  nations  find  that,  after  a  mistake,  there  is  no  place 
for  repentance  even  if  they  seek  it  carefully  with  tears.  .  .  . 
At  the  beginning  of  this  year  we  were  most  admirably  situ 
ated.  We  had  no  standing  army  which  could  overrun  our 
people.  We  were  at  peace  within  our  own  borders  and  with 
all  the  world.  .  .  .  Even  the  misfortunes  of  hard  times  we 
had  so  wrested  to  our  advantage  that  the  next  period  of 
prosperity  on  the  verge  of  which  we  then  were  looked 
brighter  than  all  the  wonderful  past.  I  am  quite  well  aware 
that  there  are  those  who  will  speak  with  due  contempt  for  the 
base  commercial  spirit  which  these  suggestions  may  indicate, 
and  that  to  the  truly  patriotic  mind  men  killed  in  battle  and 
a  whole  army  fleeing  from  yellow  fever  are  much  more  de 
sirable  things  to  a  Christian  nation  than  wealth  the  result  of 
intellect  and  peace.  What  has  been  said  would  not  have  been 
ventured  upon  had  there  not  been  signs  that  the  commercial 
spirit  which  it  is  dishonoring  to  invoke  while  trying  to  pre 
vent  war,  is  much  appealed  to  when  we  are  considering  the 
results  of  war.  .  .  . 

We  were  then  in  a  condition  which  secured  to  us  the  re 
spect  and  envy  of  the  civilized  world.  The  quarrels  which 
other  nations  have  we  did  not  have.  The  sun  did  set  on  our 
dominions  and  our  drum- beat  did  not  encircle  the  world 
with  our  martial  airs.  Our  guns  were  not  likely  to  be  called 
upon  to  throw  projectiles  which  cost,  each  of  them,  the  price 
of  a  happy  home,  nor  did  any  bombardment  seem  likely  to 
cost  us  the  value  of  a  village.  I  have  said  that  we  were  a 
harmonious  nation.  Perhaps  what  should  have  been  said 
was  that  we  were  on  the  way  to  become  so;  for  no  man 
acquainted  with  our  system  of  government  and  its  practical 
workings  could  fail  to  see  that  our  vast  territory  had  given 
us  much  trouble  to  govern  satisfactorily,  because  of  different 
views  entertained  by  the  different  sections  of  the  nation. 
Nevertheless  we  were  substantially  of  one  blood  and  the 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       255 

railroad,  distance-defying,  and  the  telegraph  and  telephone, 
time-defying,  were  doing  their  work  in  reconciling  to  com 
mon  ideas,  not  diverse  peoples,  but  peoples  separated  by 
local  self-government  and  distance. 

What  is  the  object  in  forming  a  nation?  So  far  as  the  life 
of  most  nations  goes  they  were  gathered  together  by  that 
kind  of  progressive  instinct  which  caused  families  to  unite 
and  tribes  to  be  formed.  Yet  in  all  cases  the  purpose  was  the 
common  preservation  against  other  nations,  a  union  to  repel 
the  foe  from  without.  Then  ambition  tempted,  and  in  due 
time  the  overgrown  nation  fell  to  pieces  of  its  own  weight 
under  internal  dissensions  and  under  the  attack  of  a  larger 
neighbor.  Such  has  been  the  history  of  all  empires.  I  do 
not  say  that  it  will  always  be  so,  for  there  seems  to  be  a  faint 
dawn  which  indicates  a  coming  day  when  nations  will  respect 
other  nations'  right  to  live  as  now  individuals  respect  the 
right  of  their  neighbors  to  live.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
main  struggle  of  each  man  was  to  kill  the  other  and  keep 
himself  alive.  It  must  be  admitted  however  that  the  history 
of  the  last  thirty  years  indicates  a  long  wait  before  the  cur 
tain  rises  on  the  federation  of  the  world.  Our  own  commis 
sioners  at  Paris  are  now  illustrating  the  old  doctrine  that  the 
reasons  of  the  strongest  are  the  soundest.  .  .  . 

Our  fathers  did  not  make  their  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  as  a  piece  of  rhetoric  but  as  a  guide  of  national  life. 
It  was  a  degenerate  day  which  pronounced  the  noble  words 
to  be  only  glittering  generalities  to  please  the  ears  of  children 
and  to  adorn  the  phrases  of  orators.  That  degeneracy  has 
been  paid  for  in  blood.  .  .  . 

Human  selfishness  pervades  all  human  life.  It  is  the  main 
spring  of  human  action.  Any  man's  selfishness  would  wreck 
all  his  surroundings  were  it  not  for  the  antidote,  which  is 
the  selfishness  of  all  the  rest.  Therefore  if  men  are  to  be 
justly  governed  they  must  participate  in  government.  Do  I 
mean  to  say  that  all  men  are  of  equal  power?  No  they  can 
not  be.  But  give  every  man  equal  rights,  and  intellect  and 
wisdom  will  justify  themselves  by  persuading  where  they 
have  no  power  of  command. 

The  highest  level  of  liberty  in  any  land  is  the  liberty  of 


256  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

the  meanest  citizen.  Do  you  want  another  example  from  the 
history  of  our  new  ally,  with  whom  we  are  to  unite  to  propa 
gate  liberty  by  force?  Already  plans  are  being  matured  to 
govern  with  military  power  the  lands  we  are  conquering 
until  such  time  as  the  blessings  of  liberty  can  be  fully  vouch 
safed.  So  England  began  with  Ireland.  Read  what  Charles 
James  Fox  said  a  hundred  years  ago  in  the  famous  speech  of 
February  3,  1800.  Ireland  began  under  a  military  despot 
ism,  and  remained  under  the  tutelage  of  a  nation  we  deem 
worthy  to  be  our  companion  in  the  regeneration  of  the 
world.  Did  this  good  nation  govern  unselfishly?  Did  she 
make  out  of  Ireland  more  than  Ireland  could  have  made  out 
of  herself?  After  more  than  a  century  of  dreadful  struggle 
England,  proud  obstinate  England,  found  no  other  way  than 
to  admit  to  equal  rights  the  enslaved  land,  "the  aliens  in 
blood  and  religion."  So  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world 
there  is  no  peace  for  the  governors  until  the  governed  are 
governors  also. 

Six  months  ago  we  all  believed  this.  The  first  man  we  met 
on  the  street  and  the  last  would  have  but  echoed  each  other 
in  reply.  Why  have  we  all  changed?  .  .  . 

We  have  before  us  a  most  tremendous  problem  brought 
upon  us  as  carelessly  and  as  jauntily  as  if  it  were  but  the 
play  of  summer  breezes.  . .  . 

Freedom  never  meant  the  best  government  in  the  abstract, 
it  only  meant  the  government  best  fitted  to  the  people  gov 
erned.  We  have  not  the  best  laws  in  the  United  States  that 
wise  men  could  dream  of.  What  we  have  is  the  best  laws  our 
people  are  fit  for;  and  as  they  grow  in  knowledge  and  sense  the 
laws  follow  in  laggard  procession.  But  they  follow. 

Porto  Rico  is  not  to  us  the  lofty  result  of  love  of  liberty, 
native  or  foreign.  It  is  an  indemnity.  A  republic  dependent 
upon  the  consent  of  the  governed  has  taken  an  indemnity  in 
a  war  for  liberty,  to  help  pay  the  expenses  of  a  high  and  holy 
quest.  This  may  seem  to  be  a  slight  lowering  of  purpose,  but 
if  the  newspapers  speak  truly  and  the  people  have  welcomed 
this  with  loud  acclaim,  then  we  may  waive  that  and  speak  of 
what  is  before  us.  If  we  are  to  have  this  island  we  must 
govern  it,  and  the  question  is,  how.  We  are  sometimes  told 


(Facsimile) 


~   J^ 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       257 

that  there  will  be  no  trouble.  See  how  England  governed 
her  colonies.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  do  what  she  does.  It  is 
all  very  simple.  Yet  the  principles  of  our  government  are 
totally  different.  We  say,  or  used  to  say  before  Washington 
became  an  English  curio,  that  no  man  or  set  of  men  was  wise 
enough  to  govern  others.  Where  are  we  to  get  these  men 
wise  enough  to  attempt  it?  I  notice  from  some  of  the  papers 
that  we  are  to  have  a  set  of  men  spring  up  endowed  with 
great  broad  views,  men  hitherto  unknown  in  politics,  who 
will  do  this  governing,  and  the  happy  Porto  Rican,  relieved 
at  once  from  Spanish  thralldom  and  the  necessity  of  govern 
ing  himself,  will  see  the  dawn  of  a  great  civilization  moving 
from  North  and  South  Carolina  and  lighting  up  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Caribbean  Sea.  .  . . 

Let  us  come  out  of  the  clouds  and  say  how  we  will  govern. 
Or  rather  let  us  face  the  fact  that  under  our  system  and 
under  our  principles  we  can  govern  but  one  way.  When 
Abraham  Lincoln  gave  the  sanction  of  his  great  name  to 
Parker's  words  of  wisdom, "government  of  the  people,  for 
the  people  and  by  the  people,"  he  knew  that  not  one  single 
clause  could  be  omitted.  If  it  be  "of  the  people"  and  "for 
the  people"  it  must  also  be  "by  the  people."  Has  the 
Gettysburg  speech  also  become  a  British  curio? 

^The  Philippines  are  obnoxious  to  all  that  has  been  written, 
with  the  addition  of  disadvantages  all  their  own.  They  are 
in  the  Tropics.  They  are  inhabited  by  peoples  still  more 
unlike  us  than  the  Porto  Ricans.  Laws  that  fit  us  cannot 
fit  them.  If  we  are  to  shoot  negroes  with  gatling  guns,  what 
would  we  do  to  the  Filipinos? 

But  there  are  deeper  questions  involved.  When  this 
nation  was  established  there  were,  speaking  broadly,  no 
republics  in  the  world.  We  determined  that  in  this  hemi 
sphere  the  experiment  of  free  government  should  be  tried, 
unawed  by  influence  of  the  Old  World.  Hence  we  established 
the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  we  can  all  remember  the  whirl 
wind  of  passion  with  which  we,  unarmed  and  unprepared, 
greeted  the  attempt  of  Great  Britain  to  oppress  the  Repub 
lic  of  Venezuela.  Is  that  Doctrine  also  a  British  curio? 
They  so  understand  it,  and  "Punch"  has  given  his  best  jeer 


258  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

for  half  a  century.  "Pray,  who  are  you,  Sir?"  says  Dame 
Europa.  "Uncle  Sam,"  was  the  reply.  "Ah!  any  relation  to 
the  late  Colonel  Monroe?"  Are  we  prepared  to  give  up  the 
doctrine  that  we  will  brook  no  interference  from  outside 
in  this  hemisphere,  that  the  New  World  shall  here  undis 
turbed  maintain  liberty  and  equality  —  "government  of  the 
people  for  the  people  and  by  the  people"?  But  we  cannot 
do  both  things.  We  cannot  interfere  in  the  Old  World  and 
demand  non-interference  in  the  New.  .  .  .  Destiny  can 
hardly  be  replied  to,  because  it  is  a  word  which  shows  that 
thinking  has  ended,  or  perhaps  has  never  begun.  .  .  . 

Public  opinion  is  the  foundation  and  the  sole  foundation 
on  which  any  nation  can  rest.  But  it  is  public  opinion  solidi 
fied  by  discussion,  by  full  and  mature  reflection,  guided  by 
the  past  as  well  as  the  present.  The  voice  of  those  crying 
aloud  in  the  market-places  is  not  the  voice  of  God  either  for 
time  or  for  eternity.  There  was  once  a  city  where  for  the 
space  of  two  solid  hours  all  the  people  cried  out,  "Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians!"  For  two  hours  public  sentiment 
was  unanimous.  Yet  in  that  very  city  at  that  very  time  Paul 
was  preaching  the  Living  God. 

There  is  a  final  consideration  not  to  be  forgotten.  We 
cannot  measure  our  demands,  whether  wise  or  unwise,  by 
our  grasping  desires.  The  eternal  principles  of  justice  de 
mand  recognition.  We  are  great  and  powerful.  Never  for  a 
moment  has  Spain  had  an  ultimate  hope.  We  are  four  to 
one  in  numbers.  We  are  ten  to  one  in  credit,  and  wealth  and 
credit  are  the  strongest  sinews  in  modern  war.  We  have 
been  three  hundred  miles  from  our  base  and  Spain  three 
thousand.  Spain  has  shown  her  weakness  sooner  than  the 
wisest  dreamed.  She  has  fled  at  the  first  skirmish.  The 
Inspector  General  of  our  own  army  has  declared  that  the  war 
was  not  ours  but  the  Lord's.  Think  of  it!  a  hundred  thous 
and  troops  in  Cuba  alone  and  no  battle!  Surely  the  hosts 
of  Midian  broke  no  more  signally  before  the  lamps  and 
pitchers  of  Gideon. 

But  these  things,  strong  as  they  are,  are  but  trifles  beside 
the  great  risk  we  run  of  forgetting  the  foundation  princi 
ples  of  our  government.  Our  Fathers  forgot  them  once,  and 


CHARACTERISTICS  AS  A  DEBATER       259 

Lincoln's  Second  Inaugural  tells  the  solemn  story  in  words 
as  stately  and  sublime  as  ever  flowed  from  lips  inspired  by 
God.  I  do  not  compare  our  possible  governing  of  others 
without  their  participation  to  the  sin  of  human  slavery;  but, 
as  I  remember  the  story  of  the  Indians  whom  we  have 
governed  at  home  and  of  the  negroes  we  are  governing  at 
home,  that  time  may  come  when  I  can  claim  the  credit  of 
great  moderation  speaking  of  the  government  of  people 
utterly  unknown  four  thousand  miles  away. 

The  announcement  of  Reed's  intention  to  practice 
law  in  New  York  was  variously  interpreted.  By  many 
it  was  rightly  considered  to  mean  his  retirement  from 
public  life.  Senator  Hoar  construed  it  in  that  way  and 
having  very  much  at  heart  the  Philippine  question  he 
wrote  Reed  the  following  letter. 

WORCESTER,  MASS.,  Apr.  21,  1899. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  SPEAKER:  — 

It  is  a  very  bad  thing  indeed  to  take  off  the  brake  when  the 

wagon  is  going  downhill.   I  am  very  much  afraid  we  shall 

tip  over.  But  we  will  trust  in  God  till  the  breeching  breaks. 

I  am,  with  cordial  regard, 

Faithfully  yours, 

GEO.  F.  HOAR. 

Some  of  Reed's  colleagues  in  the  House  did  not 
think  his  resumption  of  law  practice,  although  in  an 
other  state  than  his  own,  necessarily  meant  his  retire 
ment  from  Congress;  and  since  he  had  been  chosen 
again  to  the  House,  he  was  urged  to  accept  another 
election  to  the  Speakership.  One  of  the  members  from 
Ohio,  Mr.  J.  H.  Bromwell,  wrote  him  as  follows:  — 

...  If  such  a  thing  were  possible  I  would  like,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  majority  in  the  next  House,  if  you  could 
remain  a  member  until  after  the  reorganization,  accept  the 


260  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

Speakership,  permit  the  House,  after  getting  together,  to 
select  your  successor,  and  then,  if  you  still  adhere  to  your 
determination  to  withdraw,  afford  your  associates  an  oppor 
tunity  to  tender  you  such  an  ovation  as  you  are  entitled  to 
by  reason  of  your  past  eminent  services  and  as  will  display 
to  the  country  the  admiration,  respect  and  personal  esteem 
of  your  fellow  members. 

General  Henderson,  who  was  destined  to  succeed 
Reed  as  Speaker,  wrote  him,  offering  to  support  him 
again  if  he  would  retain  his  seat.  Reed  soon  set  at  rest 
the  last  doubt  of  his  intention,  and  his  retirement  was 
accepted  as  a  fact. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

LAW   PRACTICE  — BOWDOIN    SPEECH  — LAST   DAYS 

WHEN  Reed  retired  from  public  life  he  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  law  in  New  York  City.  He  connected 
himself  with  the  strong  and  prosperous  firm  of  Simp 
son,  Thacher,  and  Barnum,  of  which  he  became  senior 
partner  and  thereafter  his  name  appeared  first  in  the 
firm  name.  The  practice  of  the  firm  had  been  very- 
lucrative,  and  undoubtedly  his  connection  with  it 
attracted  new  clients  and  added  much  to  its  prosperity. 
He  thus  was  enabled  speedily  to  repair  his  fortunes. 
He  had  no  sooner  established  himself  in  a  successful 
law  practice  in  Portland  than  he  entered  Congress,  and 
after  that  event  his  practice  must  have  steadily 
dwindled  if  indeed  it  did  not  entirely  cease  to  exist. 
What  he  received  from  this  source,  from  writing,  and 
from  his  official  salary,  was  sufficient  to  support  him 
and  his  family  in  comfort,  and  probably  to  permit  also 
some  saving,  as  he  lived  prudently.  But  he  was  far 
from  wealthy  on  his  retirement  after  twenty-five  years 
of  public  service. 

Mr.  John  Moore,  a  wealthy  New  York  banker,  was 
a  native  of  Maine,  and  he  and  Reed  had  long  been 
friends.  Moore  was  partly  responsible  for  the  oppor 
tunity  that  came  to  Reed  to  enter  the  law  firm,  and 
doubtless  also  for  other  opportunities.  As  if  to  furnish 


262  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

a  further  proof  of  the  free-masonry  existing  among  the 
sons  of  Maine  when  they  meet  in  so  distant  a  place  as 
New  York,  Mr.  A.  G.  Paine  proved  of  great  assistance 
to  Reed.  Paine  possessed  remarkable  business  talent 
and  had  accumulated  a  large  fortune.  Reed  and  he 
had  been  boys  together  in  Maine,  but  from  the  time 
when  Reed  was  ten  years  old  until  he  came  to  New 
York,  they  had  scarcely  met.  Paine  took  a  deep  inter 
est  in  him,  and  helped  him  to  invest  his  savings  so  that 
they  multiplied;  and  between  Moore  and  Paine  and 
the  law  firm  and  his  own  labor  Reed  in  a  few  years 
acquired  a  comfortable  fortune. 

Those  were  days  well  along  in  the  McKinley  era, 
when  for  a  decade  the  rich  indeed  flourished  like 
the  green  bay  tree,  but  when  the  poor  also  were  per 
mitted  to  look  into  the  promised  land  of.  prosperity. 
The  noise  of  the  Greenbacker  was  not  heard  in  the 
land,  and  the  golden  age  of  the  Chautauqua  orator 
had  not  yet  dawned. 

Reed  took  a  hand  at  the  law  work  of  the  firm,  advis 
ing  and  preparing  cases  for  trial.1  He  sometimes  ap 
peared  in  the  United  States  courts,  and  once  at  least  he 
argued  a  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washing 
ton.  A  friend  who  knew  his  manner  well  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  who  happened  to  hear  this 
argument  before  the  Court,  said  that  he  spoke  in  his 
House  style  and  that  he  greatly  entertained  the  Jus 
tices.  The  truth  is  that  Reed  spoke  himself,  whether  in 

1  Vide  address  on  Reed  before  the  Bar  Association  of  New  York 
City,  Year  Book,  1904,  by  Thomas  H.  Hubbard. 


FACSIMILE  OF  ETCHING   BY   "MARK  TWAIN 


LAST  DAYS  263 

Congress  or  the  courts  or  on  any  public  occasion,  and 
he  was  much  too  great  a  man  to  affect  any  particular 
style  or  to  try  to  narrow  himself  to  fit  the  supposed 
requirements  of  any  particular  tribunal.  He  thus 
helped  compensate  the  justices  for  much  tedious  pun 
ishment  administered  by  lawyers  who  keep  their  noses 
in  a  record  of  instances  and  of  quillets,  and  who  do  not 
strike  out  manfully  at  the  judgment  and  good  sense 
of  the  men  before  them. 

Reed  soon  gathered  about  himself  in  New  York  a 
circle  of  friends  in  addition  to  those  who  have  been 
mentioned.  Mark  Twain  and  he  became  almost  in 
separable.  Dr.  Butler,  the  President  of  Columbia 
University,  was  also  one  of  the  circle. 

Reed  was  invited  to  deliver  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  ora 
tion  at  the  Harvard  Commencement  of  1899,  as  will 
appear  from  the  following  letter:  — 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  — 

In  behalf  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of  Harvard,  I 
write  to  ask  if  you  will  honor  us  by  delivering  the  oration  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  Society,  June  29  next. 

We  can  promise  you  an  excellent  audience  and  a  dinner 

which  is  more  to  be  commended  from  an  intellectual  than 

from  a  gastronomic  point  of  view,  and  I  assure  you  that  it 

will  be  a  great  pleasure  to  us  all  if  you  will  consent  to  come. 

Very  truly  y'rs., 

MOORFIELD  STOREY. 

He  had,  however,  determined  to  visit  Europe  again 
before  actively  entering  upon  his  law  practice,  and,  in 
company  with  Mrs.  Reed  and  their  daughter,  he  spent 
the  summer  traveling  abroad,  chiefly  on  the  Conti- 


264  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

nent.  The  Reeds  received  many  attentions  from  dis 
tinguished  men  in  Europe,  especially  in  France,  and  in 
Belgium,  where  they  were  entertained  by  the  King. 
Reed  was  an  indefatigable  sightseer,  with  a  fresh  and 
unquenchable  interest  which  led  him  to  begin  his  work 
early  in  the  morning  and  to  continue  it  until  night, 
without  even  stopping  for  the  midday  meal. 

After  his  retirement  he  took  a  long  cruise  with  Mr. 
Henry  H.  Rogers,  on  the  latter 's  yacht,  and  another 
member  of  the  company  was  Mark  Twain.  He  planned 
to  travel  more  and  to  pass  his  winters  in  Washington. 
Reed  took  a  keen  interest  in  public  questions,  among 
which  those  relating  to  the  Philippines  were  upper 
most.  His  fundamental  political  creed,  which  was 
embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  had 
been,  as  we  have  seen,  shocked  by  our  Asiatic  ven 
ture.  When  he  learned  that  our  military  policy  in 
those  islands  put  in  practice  some  of  the  devices 
which  had  been  applied  by  Weyler  in  Cuba  and  had 
startled  the  people  of  the  country,  he  was  filled  with 
indignation.  There  is  among  his  papers  a  form  of  an 
ironical  petition  as  if  from  Weyler  to  Congress,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  copy :  — 

To  the  Congress  of  the  United  States :  — 

The  procession  of  events  since  I  was  Governor-General 
of  Cuba  has  been  such  that  I  am  sure  every  one,  especially 
those  who  were  very  strenuous  against  me  a  few  years  ago, 
will  acknowledge  that  the  time  has  come  for  me  to  receive 
justice  at  the  hands  of  a  high  minded  people,  whose  acts 
have  recently  been  of  such  a  character  that  they  must  now 
understand  the  motives  which  actuated  me. 


ON  THE  YACHT   "KANAWHA" 
H.  H.  Rogers,  Mark  Twain,  C.  C.  Rice,  Laurence  Huttou,  Thomas  B.  Reed  and  A.  G.  Paine 


LAST  DAYS  265 

No  one  will  deny  that,  by  the  law  of  nations,  the  Cubans 
owed  to  Spain  allegiance  and  orderly  conduct,  just  such  as 
are  now  owed  by  the  Filipinos  to  the  United  States  since  the 
Treaty  of  Paris.    Had  the  Cubans  refrained  from  attacks 
upon  our  soldiers,  we  intended  to  give  them  such  liberty  as 
was  suitable  and  such  as  they  were  capable  of  exercising  in 
the  opinion  of  Spain,  their  Sovereign  Lord  and  Ruler.   In 
stead  of   submitting  to  such  reasonable  control  as  we  in 
tended  to  have,  they  fired  upon  our  troops  just  as  some  of 
you  say  the  misguided  Filipinos  did  upon  your  troops,  re 
gardless  of  our  honorable  intentions.    Thereupon,  you  said, 
as  we  did,  that,  until  they  submitted,  you  had  nothing  to  do 
but  to  reduce  them  to  submission.  After  that,  you  intended 
to  do  them  justice.   These  misguided  persons,  like  the  Cu 
bans^,  did  not  realize  that  one  always  gets  better  justice 
administered  to  him  after  he  is  down  than  if  he  were  still  in 
the  ring.  It  may  be  that  this  metaphor  is  badly  handled  by 
me  since  it  is  one  employed  mostly  by  the  English-speaking 
peoples  who  are  now  so  happily  united  by  a  common  en 
deavor  to  convince,  the  one  the  Boers,  and  the  other  the 
Filipinos,  that  liberty  consists  in  the  control  of  the  stronger. 
It  is  true  that,  in  reducing  the  Cubans  to  submission,  there 
were  methods  adopted  that  excited  compassion  on  the  part  of 
Senator  Proctor  and  other  reliable  gentlemen,  and  stirred 
your  American  people  with  deep  and  destructive  indignation. 
It  then  seemed  to  you  that  injuring  people  in  war  ought  not 
to  be  tolerated,  and  you  were  so  near  and  so  potent  that  my 
efforts  were  obliged  to  be  discontinued.  I  do  not  complain  of 
that,  for  you  did  not  then  know  that  "war  was  hell,"  and  had 
for  the  moment  forgotten  that  "all  really  good  work  is  rough 
in  the  doing,"  as  has  said  your  noble  President,  "the  great 
and  good  friend  "  to  whom  the  Emperor  will  in  due  time  send 
a  bronze  king  in  token  that  your  country  is  worthy  of  better 
things.   You  did  not,  when  you  attacked   my  administra 
tion,  have  any  forecast  of  the  future,  so  as  to  enable  you 
to  see  on  the  wall  the  names  of  General  Bell  and  Smith 
and  Waller,  and  other  persons  from  whom  I  have  received 
the  flattery  of  an  imitation.    I  understand  .that  some  of 
your  people  think  your  conduct  is  justified  by  what  your 


266  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

ancestors  did  to  the  Indians.  If  that  be  a  justification,  I  can 
assure  you  that  I  am  entitled  to  the  same;  for  Las  Casas, 
a  priest  as  holy  as  any  you  now  have,  assures  me  in  his  books 
that  we  Spaniards  treated  the  Indians  as  badly  as  you  ever 
did. 

I  will  not  detain  your  attention  longer,  but  come  directly 
to  the  request  which  is  very  dear  to  me.  Now  you  have 
learned  that  "war  is  hell,"  and  have  adopted  those  forms 
of  the  hereafter  to  which  I  had  given  my  sanction,  would  it 
not  seem  to  you  just  to  adopt,  when  speaking  of  me,  some 
forms  of  expression  of  a  more  sympathetic  nature  than  those 
formerly  used,  when  the  future  was  a  sealed  book,  and  the 
idea  of  spreading  civilization  had  not  reached  that  "rough 
ness"  which  characterizes  "all  really  good  work." 

I  beg  to  tender  to  you  the  assurance  of  the  distinguished 
and  increasing  consideration  with  which  I  am, 

Sincerely  yours, 

WEYLER. 

He  ridiculed  too  our  "purchase"  of  the  Philip 
pines,  and,  as  an  abolitionist  of  the  old  school  to  whom 
the  selling  of  men  was  most  abhorrent,  he  would 
satirically  reckon  up  the  amount  each  Malay  cost  us 
per  head.  The  following  from  a  letter  written  to 
J.  C.  Courts,  the  Clerk  of  the  House  Committee  on 
Appropriations,  illustrates  the  ironical  vein  in  which 
he  would  discuss  the  matter  in  a  familiar  letter  to 
a  friend :  — 

PINE  POINT,  ME.,  15  Aug.  1900. 

Thanks  for  the  statistics  which  I  hope  to  find  use  for. 
...  I  have  got  to  hunt  all  over  your  figures  even  to  find 
out  how  much  each  yellow  man  cost  us  in  the  bush.  As  I 
make  it  out  he  has  cost  $30  per  Malay  and  he  is  still  in  the 
bush. 

Why  did  n't  you  purchase  him  of  Spain  F.  O.  B.,  with 
definite  freight-rate,  and  insurance  paid?  .  .  . 


LAST  DAYS  267 

The  following  letter  is  of  interest  and  is  self-ex 
planatory  :  — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
WASHINGTON,  Oct.  3,  1901. 
DEAR  TOM:  — 

I  thank  you  for  your  letter.    No  man  could  wish  to  become 
President  under  the  shadow  of  so  awful  a  disaster;  but  it 
would  be  morbid  not  to  accept  the  facts  and  do  all  that  can 
be  done.  Give  my  love  to  Mrs.  Reed. 
Sincerely  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

On  February  20, 1902,  he  spoke  in  New  York  before 
the  American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association.  It 
was  in  the  main  a  droll  speech  with  some  serious  dis 
cussion  of  journalism. 

It  must  be  confessed  [he  said]  that  I  know  very  little 
about  newspapers.  Probably  a  good  man  could  not  know 
much  unless,  indeed,  he  was  a  publisher  or  an  editor.  That 
the  editors  and  publishers  are  good  men,  actuated  by  the 
highest  motives,  I  notice  incidentally  in  the  newspapers 
themselves.  I  do  not  quarrel  with  them  because  they  admit 
it;  but  I  wish  they  would  not  admit  it  every  day.  .  .  .  Which 
reminds  me  to  say  to  you  (being  for  the  moment  in  a  position 
of  superiority)  that  absolute  goodness  and  disinterestedness 
can  be  predicated  of  no  profession  outside  of  the  profession 
of  the  law.  .  .  .  Even  now,  if  a  man  were  to  keep  files  of  his 
paper,  he  would  have  to  live  outdoors  himself.  Newspapers 
are  what  they  are,  by  virtue  of  a  power  greater  than  them 
selves.  They  are  much  more  the  product  of  the  readers  than 
of  the  editors  and  publishers.  .  .  .  The  newspaper  would  be 
better  if  the  subscriber  was,  and  even  preachers  would 
do  better  if  the  congregation  would  let  them. 

He  would  occasionally  make  a  journey  to  Washing 
ton  after  his  retirement;  but  after  he  ceased  to  be  a 
member  he  probably  never  went  upon  the  floor  of  the 


268  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

House,  as  was  his  right  under  the  rules.  When  he 
visited  the  Capitol  he  would  repair  to  the  inner  room 
of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  of  which  he 
had  been  a  member;  word  would  be  passed  around 
among  his  friends,  and  he  would  soon  be  surrounded  by 
them.  It  was  a  rare  treat  at  such  times  to  hear  him 
talk  upon  such  subjects  as  were  uppermost  in  his  mind. 
His  last  public  appearance  in  his  native  city  was 
at  the  "  Old  Home  "  celebration,  on  August  7,  1900. 
The  City  Hall,  which  was  crowded  with  his  friends 
and  neighbors,  shook  with  applause  as  he  made  a 
very  brief  speech,  the  concluding  words  of  which 
were :  — 

Here 's  to  the  State  of  Maine,  settled  mostly  by  the  blood 
of  old  England,  but  always  preferring  liberty  to  ancestry; 
a  strong  old  democratic  state,  yet  among  the  first  to  help 
give  liberty  to  the  slave.  May  her  future  be  as  noble  as  her 
past. 

Here  is  to  the  state  of  Maine,  the  land  of  the  bluest  skies, 
the  greenest  earth,  the  richest  air,  the  strongest,  and,  what 
is  better,  the  sturdiest  men,  the  fairest,  and,  what  is  best  of 
all,  the  truest  women  under  the  sun. 

On  July  25,  1902,  Bowdoin  College  celebrated  its 
hundredth  anniversary  and  Reed  delivered  the  princi 
pal  address  on  the  occasion.  It  was  chiefly  on  the  sub 
ject  on  which  he  never  grew  weary  of  talking,  —  the 
rule  of  the  people  and  the  way  in  which  they  work 
out  the  destinies  of  the  world.  It  was  a  notable  speech, 
as  the  following  quotations  will  show:  — 

Progress  must  be  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  and  not  of  a 
few  individuals  who  are  to  be  leaders  and  masters.  .  .  .  All 


LAST   DAYS  269 

assemblages  of  men  are  different  from  the  men  themselves. 
Neither  intelligence  nor  culture  can  prevent  a  mob  from 
acting  as  a  mob.  The  wise  man  and  the  knave  lose  their 
identity  and  merge  themselves  into  a  new  being.  The  habits 
of  individual  life  are  broken  up  and  the  safeguards  as  well. 
In  our  everyday  life  we  have  to  be  in  constant  control  of  our 
selves.  We  know  our  limited  powers  and  do  not  purpose  to 
attempt  what  we  cannot  do.  As  part  of  a  mob,  that  limita 
tion  is  lost.  We  feel  that  we  have  the  power  of  all,  let  our 
selves  loose,  and  over-ride  our  acquired  limitations.  Our 
reason  at  such  times  will  not  work  at  its  best,  for  our  habits 
are  broken  up,  and  human  reason  for  everyday  life  depends 
on  habits. .  .  .  Our  constitution  and  system  of  government  are 
in  full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  our  people  are  to  govern 
and  also  of  the  equally  important  fact  that  they  should  have 
a  chance  to  learn  how  to  govern.  We  elect  a  House  every 
two  years.  We  elect  a  President  for  four  years  and  a  Senate 
for  six.  Why  are  there  these  differences?  Why  should  not 
the  people  have  opportunity  to  change  all  of  them  every  two 
years  and  make  a  clean  sweep  as  it  seemed  to  them  good? 
Simply  because  wisdom  is  not  born  in  an  hour.  Our  fore 
fathers  believed  that  the  discussions  involved  in  changing 
during  three  different  periods  the  Executive  and  the  two 
chambers,  would  involve  also  an  education  of  the  whole 
people  which  would  make  their  judgment  sound.  Three 
times  within  my  experience  the  judgment  of  the  people  of 
this  country  has  been  changed  on  three  great  questions. 
That  the  final  judgment  was  correct  is  not  for  me  to  say  in 
this  presence,  but  as  a  rule  I  think  I  should  prefer  the  judg 
ment  of  men  after  discussion  rather  than  without  discussion. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  institutions  so  framed  that  the 
people  can  educate  themselves  before  they  are  called  upon  to 
act.  Time  and  truth  against  any  two  is  sound  doctrine,  but 
truth  without  time  has  not  an  even  chance  with  error. 

Learned  men  often  lead  the  attacks  upon  new  discoveries. 
One  would  naturally  think  the  multitude  would  at  least  be 
the  average  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it,  but  it  cannot 
be  so.  Too  many  of  the  wise  and  intelligent  conceal  their 
wisdom  and  refuse  to  make  opposition  to  ignorance,  because 


270  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

they  prefer  the  popularity  which  comes  from  men  to  the 
righteousness  which  comes  from  God.  .  .  .  The  time  which 
elapses  from  the  moment  when  a  new  idea  for  the  good  of 
the  race  strikes  the  thought  of  wise  men  and  the  time  when 
a  working  majority  adopts  it,  is  most  astonishingly  long. 
Whole  generations  come  and  go  with  the  truth  in  full  view, 
and  we  rest  devoted  to  our  ignorance.  Read  Glanvil's  book 
defending  witchcraft,  and  see  on  how  small  a  basis  of  ap 
parent  reason  a  worldwide  faith  can  rest,  a  faith  which 
led  so  many  innocent  men  to  conviction  for  an  impossible 
crime.  .  .  . 

You  may  think  for  a  moment  that  these  things  were  so 
long  ago  that  one  might  as  well  mourn  over  the  deaths  of  the 
Deluge,  yet  some  of  these  horrors  were  inflicted  by  these 
very  engines  within  five  generations  of  men,  perhaps  within 
a  hundred  years.  In  France  itself  the  right  to  inflict  torture 
was  abolished  only  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago. . . . 
There  were  here  and  there  men  who  opposed  it  faintly,  on 
the  ground,  as  La  Bruyere  put  it,  that  "Torture  was  a  mar 
vellous  invention  entirely  sure  to  destroy  an  innocent  man 
who  had  a  feeble  constitution  and  to  save  a  guilty  man  who 
was  born  robust."  Nobody  fought  it  because  it  was  cruel 
but  because  it  did  not  surely  elicit  truth,  and  the  first 
thought  about  it  to-day  —  the  thought  of  suffering  and 
anguish  —  was  the  last  thought  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  .  .  . 

When  we  declaim  with  fervor  and  satisfaction  that  the 
eternal  years  of  God  belong  to  truth  and  see  in  ecstatic  vision 
the  triumph  of  the  future,  we  seldom  have  it  in  our  thoughts 
that  the  reason  wThy  truth  is  given  the  eternal  years  of  God 
is  because  she  needs  them  every  one.  .  .  .  Truth  does  not 
prevail  by  being  known  to  the  wise,  it  must  penetrate  to  the 
depths  of  the  human  race  to  be  prevalent.  The  great  intel 
lects  even,  and  the  great  sages,  cannot  enjoy  truth  until  we 
all  have  it  and  until  it  has  been  reduced  to  a  habit  of  life.  .  .  . 

I  have  thus  given  a  few  examples  to  illustrate  my  idea, 
which  is  that  those  who  are  comparatively  uneducated  at 
any  state  of  the  world's  progress  are  not  only  necessarily  the 
most  numerous,  but  they  have  an  influence  which  is  out  of 
proportion  to  their  numbers.  Men  even  when  wrong,  if  in 


LAST  DAYS  271 

earnest,  count  for  more  than  those  who  are  right.  Momen 
tum  is  weight  multiplied  by  velocity.  With  wide  knowledge 
come  doubt  and  difficulties.  Ignorance  has  no  hesitations. 
"The  sluggard  is  wiser  in  his  own  conceit  than  seven  men 
that  can  render  a  reason." 

To  me  it  seems  apparent  that  the  final  cause  of  this  fact  — 
the  reason  of  its  existence  —  is  the  unalterable  determination 
of  the  divine  powers  that  the  human  race  shall  be  kept 
together.  ...  If  the  plain  people  could  once  get  it  into  their 
minds  that  the  growth  in  grace  and  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
of  those  under  them  was  essential  to  their  own  progress  and 
happiness,  there  would  be  heartier  and  more  useful  support 
to  all  measures  which  tend  to  uplift  us  all.  .  .  . 

When  the  slaves  were  liberated,  the  first  thought  of  some 
of  the  best  of  them  was  to  be  learned  preachers,  doctors,  and 
lawyers.  Heaven  forbid  that  those  who  are  worthy  should 
be  cut  off  from  any  employment,  but  the  longing  was  not  a 
wise  one.  To-day  the  colored  race  are  acquiring  that  knowl 
edge  which  is  the  basis  of  their  future  hope,  the  knowledge 
of  how  to  live  an  everyday  life  and  cope  with  everyday 
duties. 

When  these  people  have  demonstrated,  as  they  surely  will, 
their  capabilities  for  everyday  life,  they  will  grow  to  all  the 
rest.  On  the  other  hand,  the  scorn  with  which  the  negro  is 
treated  is  a  blunder.  It  keeps  him  down,  and  the  scorner 
also.  It  is  the  same  thing  that  the  white  slaves  met  with  in 
old  feudal  days.  It  took  a  thousand  years  for  them  to  reach 
equality.  If  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  could  be 
honestly  applied,  it  would  solve  the  problem  somewhat 
sooner.  If  religion  does  not  solve  it,  selfishness  will;  for  men 
will  sooner  or  later  understand  that  a  mass  of  ignorance  can 
not  exist  without  lowering  the  standard  of  those  who  think 
themselves  the  better  classes.  .  .  . 

I  have  dwelt  upon  the  darker  side  of  the  history  of  human 
progress,  not  because  the  other  side  is  not  bright  with  the 
possibilities  of  a  better  life,  but  because  we  all  flatter  our 
selves  about  it  overmuch.  There  is  no  lack  of  those  who 
glorify  the  advance  and  forget  the  long  years  of  struggle. 
There  are  those  also  who  make  past  advances  an  excuse  for 


272  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

present  rest.  Some  of  our  lessons  we  have  only  half  learned. 
We  go  back  to  the  bad  past  on  very  slight  provocation. 
There  are  places  in  the  United  States  where  prevails  the  right 
of  private  war,  which  five  hundred  years  ago  found  its  grave 
in  France.  But  before  this  audience,  I  have  no  right  to  en 
croach  upon  modern  history.  All  it  would  be  proper  for  me 
to  do  would  be  to  insist  that  righteousness  has  not  yet  been 
firmly  established  even  here,  and  duty  still  has  its  call  upon 
us,  every  one. 

But  is  it  possible  in  this  complex  mystery  of  human  prog 
ress  for  individual  man  to  do  anything?  Are  we  not  like  the 
bees,  governed  by  the  spirit  of  the  hive,  carrying  us  whither 
we  know  not?  Are  we  not  the  victims  of  destiny,  with  our 
lot  marked  out  for  us  beyond  our  will  and  ken?  Is  not  this  a 
world  under  control  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  —  not  the 
fittest  to  enjoy  the  society  of  the  Almighty,  but  the  fittest  to 
trample  on  each  other?  I  do  not  believe  it.  Survival  of  the 
strongest  may  be  new  to  science,  but  it  is  not  new  to  religion. 
The  strong,  remorseless  arm  striking  down  the  weak  and  pos 
sessing  the  earth,  the  unpitying  tramp  of  the  horses'  hoofs 
devastating  the  land,  are  well  known  to  the  years  that  have 
gone,  and  they  filled  the  thoughts  of  men;  but  they  are  no 
longer  supremely  prevalent  on  earth.  Justice  and  equal 
ity  and  the  rights  of  man  have  an  ever-increasing  sway,  and 
the  power  of  the  mighty  in  arms  is  every  day  more  and  more 
mitigated  by  that  justice  and  love  which  satisfies  the  long 
ings  of  the  human  heart  better  than  even  riches  or  superior 
ity  or  power.  Whatever  contribution  any  man  makes  to  hu 
manity  and  justice  will  not  be  lost,  but  will  be  gathered  up 
and  be  among  the  treasures  of  the  Almighty. 

Near  the  time  of  the  celebration  of  the  College  Cen 
tennial  Reed  entertained  his  classmates  at  a  dinner 
at  the  Cumberland  Club.  He  was  at  that  time  ap 
parently  in  good  health  and  he  greatly  enjoyed  the 
occasion.  Augustine  Jones,  a  classmate  and  a  famous 
teacher,  wrote  Reed  a  letter  in  which  he  presented  him 


THOMAS   B.   REED,  1901 


LAST  DAYS  273 

as  the  central  figure  of  the  dinner,  as  he  almost  in 
variably  was  on  similar  occasions  in  Washington  or 
elsewhere.  A  portion  of  the  letter  follows:  — 

Sam  Johnson's  Literary  Club  was  the  uppermost  thought 
in  my  mind,  except  the  Class  of  1860,  as  we  sat  in  that  circle. 
You  seemed  to  have  the  Olympian  power  over  things  as  host 
born  also  of  wide  experience  of  affairs  and  exalted  position, 
and  constantly  reminded  me  of  the  "giant  of  learning"  in 
the  midst  of  smaller  men.  I  am  sure  that  without  a  shade  of 
envy  in  a  single  soul  of  us  we  were  to  a  man  proud  to  have 
been  your  classmates. 

On  this  letter  is  minuted  Reed's  reply  written  in  his 
own  hand:  — 

PORTLAND,  ME.,  30  June,  1902. 
DEAR  AUGUSTINE:  — 

It  is  just  like  your  old  modest  fashion  to  give  us  the  glory 
and  not  take  your  share. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  while  you  were  writing  that  very 
letter  I  was  thinking  of  how  much  better  that  same  dinner 
was  because  you  were  there  and  set  so  much  of  the  talk  in 
motion. 

We  did  have  a  rare  good  time  such  as  we  may  have  again, 
but  cannot  sanely  look  for,  so  controlled  are  men  by  little 
circumstances  which  do  so  much  when  they  are  combined 
as  they  happily  were  that  evening.  I  have  the  same  wonder 
over  it  that  you  have.  I  had  grave  doubts  of  it  before,  but 
none  after.  It  comforts  me  much  that  we  all  were  so  merry 
and  so  full  of  the  occasion. 

Brown  and  I  talked  it  over  after  you  were  gone  and  we 
rejoiced. 

I  was  about  to  write  you  especially  thanking  you  for  being 
there  and  am  more  than  glad  that  you  felt  repaid. 
With  kindest  regards, 

Truly  yours, 

T.  B.  REED. 


274  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

But  such  a  "rare  good  time"  of  which  he  held  out 
the  hope  he  was  not  destined  to  have  again.  He  was 
probably  not  himself  conscious  of  any  failing  of  health, 
but  he  appeared  to  be  less  strong.  He  had  been  trou 
bled  with  lameness  in  an  ankle  and  on  the  advice  of  his 
physician  had  dieted  to  reduce  his  weight  by  twenty 
pounds.  Having  accomplished  that,  he  felt  better,  and 
continued  dieting  until  he  had  shrunk  twenty  pounds 
more.  He  had  a  less  robust  appearance,  his  face  be 
came  more  pallid  and  by  contrast  his  eyes  seemed  even 
larger  and  more  brilliant.  He  complained  of  vague 
discomforts,  and  became  apprehensive  and  nervous 
but  was  averse  to  consulting  doctors.  He  had  prob 
ably  been  afflicted  for  some  months  with  the  disease 
to  which  he  finally  succumbed,  the  progress  of  which 
might  have  been  arrested  by  prompt  treatment. 

On  Friday,  November  28,  1902,  he  was  a  guest  at 
a  dinner  in  New  York  City,  given  by  Mr.  George 
Harvey  to  Mark  Twain.  He  made  a  brief  and  very  in 
formal  speech,  in  which  he  joked  the  humorist  about 
some  of  the  things  that  happened  on  the  cruise  they 
had  made  together  on  Mr.  Rogers's  yacht.  Among 
other  things  he  accused  Mark  Twain  of  permitting 
himself,  "in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment,  to  play 
trumps  when  he  has  got  more  suit-cards  left  in  his 
hand,"  and  he  alluded  to  himself  as  the  only  person 
aboard  the  yacht  "who  had  real  gravity  that  was  cal 
culated  to  keep  the  ship  in  order  and  keep  her  down." 

He  did  not  reach  home  that  night  until  after  one 
o'clock,  and  he  rose  at  six  to  take  a  train  for  Phila- 


THE   PORTLAND   STATUE 


LAST  DAYS  275 

delphia,  where  he  had  an  appointment.  While  in 
Philadelphia  he  was  extremely  busy.  On  Sunday  he 
went  to  Washington  where  he  had  some  business  be 
fore  the  Supreme  Court.  As  the  Shoreham  where  he 
had  lived  so  long  was  temporarily  closed,  he  went  to 
the  Arlington  Hotel. 

On  Monday,  he  visited  the  Supreme  Court.  Dur 
ing  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  he  suffered  a  sharp 
attack  of  pain.  On  Tuesday  he  again  went  to  the 
Capitol,  where  some  of  his  friends  discovered  him  in 
the  inner  room  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means. 
He  sat  in  one  of  the  large,  heavily  cushioned  chairs 
and  looked  pale  and  weary.  The  President's  message 
was  just  being  read  in  the  House,  and  one  of  the 
members  coming  from  the  floor  repeated  a  highly 
colored  phrase  about  the  result  of  our  Philippine 
policy.  Reed's  eyes  flashed  and  he  said  with  his  old 
fire,  "I  suppose  he  put  that  there  for  the  same  reason 
that  they  put  tails  on  coats,  —  for  the  benefit  of  the 
lackeys."  And  he  then  proceeded  with  a  witty  little 
discourse  on  the  uses  of  coat-tails,  and  their  value 
to  lackeys  who  would  have  something  to  brush.  He 
was  soon  surrounded  by  a  group  of  his  old  friends  and 
he  seemed  to  take  a  good  deal  of  pleasure  in  the  talk. 
One  of  them  read  from  a  newspaper  that  he  happened 
to  have  some  of  Reed's  jokes  at  the  Mark  Twain  din 
ner,  and  Reed  joined  in  the  laugh  which  followed. 

He  complained  of  not  feeling  well.  He  went  from  the 
Committee  room  to  the  Senate  end  of  the  Capitol, 
where  he  talked  with  other  friends.  He  was  seen  to  sink 


27G  THOMAS  BRACKETT  REED 

into  a  chair  and  complained  of  sharp  pains.  "  I  am 
sick,"  he  said,  "and  ought  to  be  in  bed  this  minute." 
Those  who  were  with  him  were  alarmed  at  his  condi 
tion,  which  seemed  at  the  moment  very  serious.  Soon 
he  rallied  and  was  taken  to  his  hotel.  His  physicians 
decided  that  he  was  suffering  from  appendicitis,  and 
an  advanced  case  of  disease  of  the  kidneys.  The 
former  ailment  appeared  to  be  an  incident  and  not  a 
primary  factor,  and  its  symptoms  soon  subsided.1 
But  with  the  exception  of  a  slight  temporary  check 
now  and  then,  the  kidney  disease  proceeded  steadily. 
One  of  the  attending  physicians  subsequently  expressed 
the  opinion  that  Reed  had  had  chronic  Bright's  disease 
for  years  and  that  its  violent  form  was  precipitated  by 
the  attack  of  appendicitis.2  His  wife  and  daughter  were 
summoned  to  Washington.  For  much  of  the  time  he 
was  unconscious  or  wholly  or  partially  delirious.  In  his 
moments  of  delirium  he  would  astonish  his  physicians 
by  the  sententious  and  dignified  manner  in  which  he 
would  argue  with  them  against  the  administration  of 
remedies.  "If  unfair,  then  I  apologize,"  he  explained 
when  told  by  one  of  the  doctors  that  he  might  have  been 
unfair  in  a  decision.  Again:  "If  you  have  repented 
of  your  action  we  will  consider  that  phase  of  the 
case."  After  a  remedy  had  been  given  him  he  broke 
out:  "Doctor,  you  have  no  legal  right  to  do  that.  It  is 
the  third  time  you  have  taken  the  liberty.  I  will 

1  See  "  Brief  Report  of  the  Last  Illness  of  the  Hon.  Thomas 
B.  Reed  "  by  one  of  his  physicians,  T.  L.  MacDonald,  M.D. 

2  Washington  Post,  Dec.  8,  1902. 


THOMAS   REED   BALEXTIXE 

Held  by  his  mother,  Mrs.  Arthur  T.  Balentine,  in  the  act  of  unveiling  his 
grandfather's  statue  at  Portland,  Maine,  in  1910 


LAST  DAYS  277 

have  you  understand  that  the  citizen  is  not  obliged 
to  submit  to  the  dictation  of  the  man  with  the  hoe." 

Thus  his  two  or  three  remaining  days  wore  away 
with  unconsciousness  and  delirium  alternating,  and 
with  only  a  rare  glimpse  upon  the  world  as  he  had 
known  it.  By  Saturday,  December  6,  his  condition  be 
came  very  grave.  Late  in  the  evening  of  that  day  his 
delirium  began  to  abate,  and  he  sank  into  a  peaceful 
sleep,  out  of  which  at  midnight  he  passed  into  another 
world. 

Over  the  road  on  which  he  had  so  often  journeyed  to 
and  fro  between  Portland  and  the  country's  Capitol 
they  brought  him  home  again  for  all  time.  He  was 
placed  in  the  Evergreen  Cemetery,  in  which  his  young 
son  and  his  father  and  mother  were  buried,  and  where 
in  1914,  in  the  springtime,  his  wife  was  laid  beside  him. 
Upon  the  most  beautiful  promenade  of  the  city,  near 
the  crest  of  a  hill,  a  statue  of  him  was  reared  by  popu 
lar  subscription,  and  was  unveiled  by  his  young  grand 
son,  Thomas  Reed  Balentine.  The  figure,  giant-like 
and  majestic,  seeming  hardly  larger  than  life  to  those 
who  knew  him,  stands  silhouetted  against  the  sky,  as 
if  to  typify  the  high  background  against  which  the 
deeds  of  his  public  life  shine.  About  its  base,  upon  a 
summer's  day,  the  barefoot  boys  of  Portland  may  be 
seen  playing,  just  as  he  played  near  the  same  spot 
in  his  own  boyhood,  perchance  waging  mimic  wars 
against  the  "warlike  tribes"  on  Munjoy  Hill. 

THE   END 


INDEX 


INDEX 


£sop's  Fables,  paraphrase  of,  bj 

R.,  159;  229. 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio,  247. 

Aldrich,  James  F.,  R.'s  manage 

in  canvass  for  nomination,  in 

1896,  222. 

Aldrich,  Nelson  W.,  79. 
Allen,  Amos  L.,  quoted,  7  n.;  22. 
American  Newspaper  Publishers 
Association,  R.'s  address  be 
fore,  267. 
Anderson,  James  E.,  witness  be 
fore  Potter  Committee,  62,  63 
R.'s     cross  -  examination    of 
63. 

Anderson,  Samuel  J.,  unsuccess 
fully  contests  R.'s  seat  in  47th 
Congress,  10. 
Andrew,  John  A.,  20. 
Anthony,  "Our  Cat,"  R.'s  paper 

on,  146,  147. 

Anti-Corn-Law  League,  201. 
Appropriations,  extravagance  of, 

after  the  Civil  War,  45,  46. 
"Ark  and  Shekina  letter,"  the, 

69. 

Army  of  the  U.S.,  and  Republi 
can  state  governments  in 
South,  49. 

Army  Appropriation  bill,  fails  of 
passage  in  44th  Congress,  49. 
Arthur,  Chester  A.,  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  succeeds  Garfield  in  the 
presidency,  96;  his  first  annual 
message,  96;  and  Chinese  Ex 
clusion  bills,  102;  118. 

Baird,  Spencer  F.,  149. 


Balentine,  Katherine  (Reed), 
R.'s  daughter,  100  w. 

Balentine,  Thomas  Reed,  R.'s 
grandson,  unveils  monument 
to  R.,  277. 

Banks,  Nathaniel  P.,  his  "Union 
Slide  Speech,"  13;  50. 

Barbed  wire.    See  Free  list. 

Bell,  Alexander  Graham,  149. 

Benjamin,  Judah  P.,  13. 

Billings,  John  S.,  149. 

Bingham,  Henry  H.,  79. 

Black,  John  C.,  137,  203. 

Blackburn,  J.  C.  S.,  on  Pot 
ter  Committee,  59;  50,  97, 
109. 

Blackstone,  Tilden's  horse,  fig 
ures  in  cipher  telegrams,  67,  68. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  his  speech  in 
Senate,  presenting  statue  of 
King,  5n.,  51;  and  the  presi 
dential  nomination  of  1876,  43; 
reflects  on  Massachusetts,  51; 
on  the  purpose  of  the  Potter 
investigation  (1877),  74;  de 
feated  for  nomination  for  Pres 
ident  in  1880,  by  Garfield,  89, 
90;  R.'s  relations  with  and 
opinion  of,  90,  91;  R.  on  his 
eulogy  of  Garfield,  90  n.;  his 
place  in  our  political  history, 
91;  his  popularity,  91,  92; 
Conkling's  hostility  to,  suffi 
cient  to  explain  his  defeat  in 
1884,  129,  130;  supported  by 
R.,  130;  joins  issue  with  Cleve 
land  on  tariff  question,  155; 
251. 


282 


INDEX 


Blanc,  Louis,  his  French  Revolu 
tion,  150. 

Bland,  Richard  P.,  50,  165. 

Bland-Allison  bill,  vetoed  by 
President  Hayes,  52;  veto  of, 
overruled  in  House,  52;  77. 

Bland-Allison  dollars,  result  of 
coinage  of,  173. 

Blount,  James  H.,  49. 

Blue  Grass  Club,  R.  declines 
invitation  of,  182. 

Boston  Herald,  and  the  proposed 
issue  of  bonds,  216. 

Bowdoin  College,  R.  admitted  to, 
14;  requirements  for  admission 
to,  in  1856,  14;  curriculum  of, 
15;  high  quality  of  instruction 
in,  15 /.;  President  Woods,  15- 
17;  some  professors  at,  17,  18; 
quality  of  students  at,  in  R.'s 
time,  19-21;  societies  at,  20, 
21,  22;  R.'s  enduring  affection 
for,  28;  excerpts  from  R.'s  ad 
dress  at  centennial  celebration 
of,  268-272. 

Bowdoin  Debating  Club,  20,  21. 

Boyd,  Professor,  25. 

Brackett,  Mary,  marries  Joseph 
Reed,  3.  And  see  Reed,  Mary 
(Brackett). 

Breckinridge,  Clifton  R.,  125, 
126. 

Breckinridge,  William  C.  P.,  150, 
169. 

Bright,  John,  201. 

Bromwell,  Jacob  H.,  letter  of,  to 
R.,  259. 

Brown,  William  W.,  151. 

Brunswick  Telegraph,  quoted,  26. 

Bryan,  William  J.,  opposes  bill  to 
repeal  silver-purchase  clause, 
185;  R.  pokes  fun  at,  185,  186; 
nominated  for  President  in 


1896,  225;  decisively  defeated, 

but  polls  largest  vote  ever  cast 

for  Democratic  candidate,  229; 

198. 

Buchanan,  James,  12. 
Bugle,  the,  college  paper,  20. 
"Buncombe,  County  of,"  99. 
Bunsen,  Baron  Christian  K.  J., 

16. 

Burchard,  Horatio  C.,  50. 
Burchard,  Samuel  D.,  91. 
Burleigh,  John  H.,  beaten  by  R. 

for  Congressional  nomination, 

40,  41,  42. 
Burlington,  Iowa,  R.'s  speech  at 

(1890),  179. 
Burns,  Robert,  147. 
Burrows,  Julius  C.,  quoted,  83. 
Bute,  Earl  of,  132. 
Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  on  Potter 

Committee,    60,    61;    sustains 

Tilden's  claim  of  election,  61; 

50,  70. 

Butler,  Matthew  C.,  149. 
Butler,  Nicholas  M.,  263. 
Butterworth,  Benj.,  his  speech  on 

"counting    a    quorum,"    170; 

79,  150,  164. 
Byron,   George    Gordon,    Lord, 

147. 

California,  result  of  R.'s  stay  in, 
32;  its  people  and  climate  de 
scribed  by  R.,  32-34. 

Campbell,  Allen  G.,  contests  G. 
Q.  Cannon's  election  as  Dele 
gate  from  Utah,  95,  96. 

Cannon,  George  Q.,  Delegate- 
elect  from  Utah,  to  47th  Con 
gress,  unseated,  95,  96. 

Cannon,  Joseph  G.,  50,  100,  145, 
164,  169,  176. 

"Canoni,  Giuseppe,"  145. 


INDEX 


Capital,  R.  on  the  struggle  b 

tween  labor  and,  135,  136. 
Capital  punishment,  R.'s  speec 

in  opposition  to,  36. 
Carlisle,  John  G.,  chosen  speake 
of  House  in  48th  Congress,  119 
!  in  49th  Congress,  140;  in  50t 
Congress,  154;  his  tariff-reduc 
tion   address,    154;    leader   i 
debate  on  Mills  bill,  156;  50 
164,  169,  216. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted  by  R 

133;  147. 

Carpenter,  Rev.  Hugh,  letter  o 
R.  to,  on  his  religious  beliefs 
27,  28. 

Caruth,  Asher  G.,  182. 
Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  R.'s  speech 

at  (1890),  180. 

Century  Magazine,  90,  250,  251. 
Chamberlain,  Joshua  L.,  Profes 
sor  at  Bowdoin,  18;  his  brilliant 
career,  18. 
Champaign,  111.,  R.'s  speech  at 

(1890),  179. 

Chase,  Solon,  leader  of  the 
Greenbackers  in  Maine,  85, 
86. 

Chinese,  in  California,  202,  203. 
Chinese  Exclusion  bill,  as  first 
reported  opposed  by  R.,  and 
vetoed       by     Arthur,       102; 
amended  bill  passed,  102. 
Cipher  telegrams,   investigation 
of,  by  Potter  Committee,  64- 
72;  majority  of  committee  ab 
solves  Tilden  from  blame  for, 
72. 

Civil-Service  reform,  R.  on  Dem 
ocratic    attitude    toward,    44, 
137,  138;  favored  by  R.,  110. 
Civil  War,  results  of  great  expen- 
.    ditures  of,  45,  46. 


Class  of  1860  (Bowdoin),  enter 
tained  by  R.,  272. 
Clay,  Henry,  Elaine's  popularity 

compared  with  his,  92. 
Clemens,   Samuel  L.,   263,   264, 

274,  275. 

Cleve,  George,  3,  4,  5,  244. 
Cleveland,  Grover,  chosen  Gov 
ernor  of  N.Y.,  in  1882,  118;  his 
small  plurality  in  New  York  in 
1884,  130;  R.  on  attitude  of  his 
administration    toward    civil- 
service  reform,   137,   156;  his 
opposition  to  silver  legislation, 
152,    153;    supported    by    R. 
therein,  153;  his  annual  mes 
sage  of  1887  confined  to  tariff, 
154,    155;    Elaine   joins   issue 
with,  155;  favors  gold  stand 
ard,    184,    185;    would    have 
silver-purchase    provision    re 
pealed  before  his  inauguration, 
185;    his    second    election    as 
President,  189;  calls  extra  ses 
sion  of  53d  Congress,  to  repeal 
silver-purchase  law,  191;  pow 
erfully    supported    by    R.    in 
securing  repeal,  193,  194,  195; 
his   course   commended,    196; 
his  letter  to  Wilson  on  Senate 
amendments  to  Wilson  Tariff 
bill,  206;  R.  on  his  attitude 
toward  the  bill,  209;  allows  bill 
to  become  law  without  his  sig 
nature,   209  n.;  and  the  pro 
posed    issue    of    gold    bonds 
(1895),  216;  usually  supported 
by  R.  in  non-partisan  matters, 
in    54th    Congress,    218;    his 
Venezuelan  message,  218-220; 
188,  221. 

leveland,  Parker,  Professor  at 
Bowdoin,  17. 


284 


INDEX 


Coal.   See  Free  list. 

Cobb,  Howell,  13. 

Cobden,  John,  £01. 

Cockran,  W.  Bourke,R.  in  debate 
with,  57,  58;  198,  200,  201, 
202. 

Colby  University,  R.'s  address 
at,  quoted,  131-136. 

College  education  in  the  eighteen- 
fifties,  criticized  by  R.,  28,  29. 

Committees  of  the  House.  See 
Speaker. 

Conger,  Omar  D.,  50. 

Congress,  Forty-fourth,  fails  to 
pass  Army  Appropriation  bill, 
49. 

Forty-fifth,  important  ques 
tions  pending  before,  45  ff.; 
R.'s  first  Congress,  48;  special 
session  of,  48  ff.;  some  leading 
members  of,  49-50;  House 
investigates  election  of  1876, 
and  cipher  telegrams  (Potter 
Committee),  59-75. 

Forty-sixth,  composition  of, 
79;  special  session  of,  79 
Greenback  party  first  repre 
sented  in,  79;  debate  on  pres 
ence  of  U.S.  marshals  at  polls 
83. 

Forty-seventh,  R.  a  candidati 
for  Speaker,  93;  Keifer  chosen 
Speaker,  94;  bill  to  repeal  cer 
tain    internal    revenue    taxes 
raises  question  of  constitution 
al  prerogative  of  House,  107  ff. 
small  majority  of  Republicans 
in  House,  leads  to  obstruction 
and  partisan  debate,  116,  117 
the    only    Republican    House 
chosen  between  1872  and  1888 
118. 
Forty-eighth,  Carlisle  chosen 


Speaker,  119;  contributed  little 
legislation  of  importance,  and 
why,  120;  proceedings  of,  en 
livened  only  by  R.'s  wit,  120; 
filibustering  in,  and  inability 
of  Democrats  to  command  a 
quorum,  121,  122;  debate  on 
appropriations  for  Navy  in, 
122-125;  race  question  dis 
cussed  in,  125,  126;  appropria 
tions  for  Post  OflBce  Dept.  at 
tacked  by  R.,  126,  127. 

Forty-ninth,  R.  wins  Re 
publican  nomination  for 
Speaker,  138,  139;  Carlisle 
chosen  Speaker,  140;  Senate 
and  House  of,  controlled  by 
different  parties,  154;  paucity 
of  legislation  by,  154;  Cleve 
land's  message  of  1887  to,  154, 
155;  Mills  tariff  bill  in,  155  ff.; 
House  passes  Mills  bill,  160. 

Fiftieth,  Carlisle  chosen 
Speaker,  154. 

Fifty-first,  Republican  in 
both  branches,  161;  contest  for 
Speakership,  162,  163;  R.  cho 
sen  Speaker,  163;  small  Re 
publican  majority  in  House 
causes  difficulty  in  holding  a 
quorum,  164  ff.;  violent  par 
tisanship  in  House,  165;  up 
roarious  scene  in  House,  on 
R.'s  "counting  aquorum,"  167- 
169;  debate  thereon,  169-171; 
R.'s  ruling  sustained,  171;  atti 
tude  of  House  to  free  coinage 
of  silver,  173,  174;  passes  Sher 
man  Silver-Purchase  bill,  174, 
175;  and  revises  tariff,  175; 
House  passes  Force  bill,  175, 
176;  first  session  of,  marked 
by  extreme  partisan  acrimony, 


INDEX 


285 


177;  Democrats  oppose  usual 
resolution  of  thanks  to  Speaker, 
181;  R.  on  record  of,  181, 182. 

Fifty-second,  Democratic  ma 
jority  in  House,  180,  184; 
Crisp  chosen  Speaker,  184;  R. 
minority  leader,  184,  186;  atti 
tude  of  Democrats  in  House 
toward  free  coinage,  184-186. 

Fifty-third,  Democrats  con 
trol  both  houses  of,  191;  R.'s 
strong  leadership  of  minority 
in,  191;  extra  session  of,  191  j^.; 
National  Election  law  repealed 
by,  197,  198;  Wilson  tariff  bill 
debated  and  passed  by,  198- 
210;  four  supplementary  free- 
list  bills  passedby  House,  207  /.; 
House  adopts  principle  of  R.'s 
quorum  ruling,  211-214;  bill 
authorizing  issue  of  gold  bonds 
rejected  by  House,  215. 

Fifty-fourth,  great  Republi 
can  majority  in,  210,  217;  R. 
chosen  Speaker,  217;  Cleve 
land's  Venezuelan  message  to, 
218,  219;  passes  resolution 
making  appropriations  for  pro 
posed  boundary  commission, 
219. 

Fifty-fifth,  Republican  in 
both  houses,  229;  majority  in 
House  unwieldy,  231;  R.  cho 
sen  Speaker,  231;  extraordi 
nary  session  of,  passes  Dingley 
tariff  bill,  23 1,232;  passes  meas 
ure  leading  to  war  with  Spain, 
233,  234. 

Fifty-sixth,    R.    elected    to, 

236,  but  resigns  his  seat,  238. 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  result  of  his 

hostility  to  Elaine,  in  1884, 129, 

130;  91. 


Connecticut,  attitude  of,  toward 
R.'s  nomination  in  1896,  223. 

Conservatism,  advantage  of,  242. 

Constitution  of  the  U.S.,  pro 
posed  woman-suffrage  amend 
ment  to,  100-102;  and  the  quo 
rum  of  the  House,  168,  170. 

Cook,  Jane,  marries  Experience 
Mitchell,  3. 

Cooper,  Peter,  68. 

Courts,  J.  C.,  letter  of  R.  to,  266. 

Cousins,  Robert  J.,  144. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.  ("Sunset"),  R.'s 
colloquies  with,  114,  115,  116, 
124,  125;  R.'s  estimate  of,  116; 
49,  95,  109,  122. 

Crapo,  William  W.,  50. 

Crisp,  Charles  F.,  introduces 
"Jim  Crow"  amendment  to 
Interstate  Commerce  Commis 
sion  bill,  125;  chosen  Speaker  of 
52d  Congress,  184;  R.  proposes 
resolution  of  thanks  to,  189, 
190;  164,  165,  169,  199. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  R.'s  opinion  of, 
133;  53. 

Cuba,  rebellion  in,  232;  effect  of 
blowing-up  of  Maine,  232,  233. 

Culberson,  David  B.,  50. 

Cullom,  Shelby  M.,  149. 

Cumberland  Club,  a  favorite 
haunt  of  R.  in  Portland,  145; 
described  by  R.,  145. 

Cumberland  County,  Maine,  R. 
admitted  to  bar  of,  34;  contest 
between,  and  York  County  for 
Congressional  candidate,  40^., 
86. 

Currency  of  U.S.,  not  on  sound 
basis  in  1876,  46,  47.  And  see 
Free  coinage,  Gold  standard, 
Silver. 

Curtin,  Andrew  G.,  94. 


INDEX 


Dalzell,  John,  letters  of  R.  to,  226; 
164,  165,  236. 

Davis,  Joseph  J.,  72,  73. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  51. 

Declaration  of  Independence, 
taken  very  seriously  by  R., 
235,  236,  255,  264. 

Democratic  administration,  R.  on 
attitude  of  toward  civil-service 
reform,  137,  138. 

Democratic  National  Conven 
tion  of  1896,  nominates  Bryan, 
225. 

Democratic  party,  and  civil-serv 
ice  reform,  44;  opposed  to 
presence  of  U.S.  marshals  at 
polls,  83;  controls  both  Houses 
of  53d  Congress,  191;  over 
whelming  defeat  of,  in  elec 
tions  of  1894,  210,  217. 

Democratic  platform  of  1892, 
193. 

Democrats,  in  House,  filibuster 
on  internal  revenue  tariff  revi 
sion  bill,  108, 109;  disturbed  by 
filibustering  in  48th  Congress, 
121;  and  the  counting  of  a 
quorum,  165^.;  in  51st  Con 
gress,  majority  of,  favor  free 
coinage,  174;  vote  against 
resolution  of  thanks  to  R.  at 
close  of  51st  Congress,  181; 
have  majority  of  House  in  52d 
Congress,  184;  but  a  strong 
minority  of  them  opposed  to 
free  coinage,  184,  185;  in  53d 
Congress,  repeal  National  Elec 
tion  law,  197;  in  53d  Congress, 
forced  to  adopt  R.'s  quorum 
ruling,  211-214. 

Deputy  Marshals  of  the  U.S., 
presence  of,  at  the  polls,  dis 
cussed  in  46th  Congress,  83. 


And     see    National     election 

law. 

"Destiny,"  253,  258. 
Destombes,  Cyrille  J.,  150. 
Dickens,  Charles,  147. 
Dingley,     Nelson,     sponsor    for 

tariff  bill  of  1897,  231,  232;  94, 

100,  143,  144,  226. 
Dolliver,  Jonathan  P.,  164. 
Dudley,  William  W.,  151. 
Durham,  Jay  F.,  182. 

Eaton,  William  W.,  on  the  pur 
pose  of  the  Potter  investiga 
tion,  74;  124. 

Election  contests,  partisan  pas 
sions  aroused  in,  in  47th  Con 
gress,  116,  117. 

Electoral  Commission  (1877), 
counts  votes  of  S.C.,  La., 
and  Fla.,  for  Hayes,  59,  65; 
74. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  241. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  132. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  147. 

England.     See  Great  Britain. 

Evans,  George,  20. 

Everett,  Charles  Carroll,  quoted, 
16;  professor  at  Bowdoin, 
17. 

Evergreen  Cemetery,  Portland, 
R.  buried  in,  277. 

Ewing,  Thomas,  49. 

Fairchild,  Charles,  188. 

Fessenden,  Samuel,  R.'s  close 
friend,  22;  killed  in  Civil  War, 
23;  R.'s  tribute  to,  in  oration 
at  Portland  Centennial,  24,  25, 
criticized,  153,  154. 

Fessenden,  William  Pitt,  his  loan 
to  R.  in  college,  22,  23;  R.'s 
gratitude,  23;  his  vote  against 


INDEX 


287 


impeachment  of  Pres.  Johnson, 
23,  24;  R.'s  memorial  address 
on,  35,  36;  20. 

Feuillet,  Octave,  his  A  Marriage 
in  the  World,  and  Monsieur  de 
Camors,  150. 

Field,  Walbridge  A.,  50. 

Filibustering  in  the  House,  80  ff.; 
resorted  to  by  R.,  80,  81,  82; 
effect  of,  117;  efficacy  of,  illus 
trated,  121;  in  51st  Congress, 
leads  to  counting  a  quorum  by 
R.,  164 /.;  resorted  to  by  R.  to 
force  Democrats  to  ratify  his 
"quorum"  ruling,  171;  under 
R.'s  lead,  in  53d  Congress,  212, 
213. 

Filipinos,  the.     See  Philippines. 

Financial  condition  of  U.S.,  in 
1893,  and  its  causes,  192,  193; 
in  Jan.,  1895,  214;  R.'s  remedy 
for,  214;  Democratic  majority 
decides  to  issue  bonds,  215. 

Florida,  electoral  votes  of,  cast 
for  Hayes,  59. 

Folger,  Charles  J.,  overwhelming 
defeat  of,  for  governor  of  N.Y., 
118. 

Force  bill,  passed  by  House  in 
51st  Congress,  175,  176. 

Fortnightly  Review,  200. 

Foster,  Charles,  49. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  256. 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  in  the  cam- 

x  paign  of  1880,  84;  Arthur's 
recommendation  concerning, 
96;  by  whom  favored,  173,  174; 
R.  and  majority  of  Republicans 
opposed  to,  174;  attitude  of 
Pres.  Harrison  toward,  174; 
minority  of  Democrats  op 
posed  to,  in  52d  Congress,  184, 
185;  the  issue  in  1896,  225, 


226.  And  see  Bland-Allison 
bill,  Gold  Standard. 

Free  list,  separate  bills  putting 
sugar  and  other  articles  on, 
passed  by  House  in  conjunc 
tion  with  Wilson  tariff  bill, 
207 /. 

Free  Masonry,  agitation  against, 
21. 

Free  passes,  R.  on,  138. 

"Free  ships,"  R.  opposed  to,  110. 

"Free  trade,"  and  the  financial 
crisis  of  1893,  193;  R.  on  falla 
cies  of,  199,  200. 

"  Freedom  of  debate,"  R.  charged 
with  impairing,  176;  211. 

Fremont,  John  C.,  12. 

French,  R.'s  proficiency  in,  148; 
he  keeps  a  diary  in,  148. 

French  books,  in  R.'s  library,  148. 

Frye,  William  P.,  20,  49,  143. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  minority 
leader  in  45th  and  46th  Con 
gresses,  79;  nominated  for 
President  (1880),  89,  90;  R. 
on  Elaine's  eulogy  of,  90  n,; 
assassination  of,  96;  49,  50, 
129. 

jreneva  Award,  bill  for  distribu 
tion  of,  102J". 

Seneva  Tribunal,  nature  of  its 
award,  103. 

George  IV,  and  the  battle  of 
Waterloo,  124. 

Gold  reserve,  too  heavily  bur 
dened  by  coinage  of  silver  dol 
lars  under  Bland-Allison  Act, 
173,  192,  193,  214;  proposed 
issue  of  gold  bonds  to  protect, 
215. 

Gold  Standard,  maintenance  of, 
favored  by  Cleveland,  184;  Re- 


288 


INDEX 


publicans  pledged  to,  in  plat 
form  of  1896,  225;  the  clear- 
cut  issue  in  that  campaign,  225, 
226.  And  see  Free  coinage. 

Goodwin,  Daniel  R.,  17. 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  4. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  his  vetoes  of  in 
flation  measures,  47;  39,  54,  91, 
119. 

Great  Britain,  and  the  Venezue 
lan  question,  218,  257,  258;  at 
titude  of,  after  Cleveland's 
message,  218-220;  and  her  col 
onies,  257. 

Greenback  party,  first  represen 
tation  of,  in  46th  Congress, 
79. 

Greenbackers,  in  the  46th  Con 
gress,  84;  led  by  Solon  Chase  in 
Maine,  85,  86;  catch  a  glimpse 
of  Eldorado,  87;  R.'s  charac 
terization  of,  88. 

Greenbackism,  in  Maine,  76,  85, 
86;  in  campaign  of  1880,  84  ff. 

Greenbacks,  R.'s  views  on  pay 
ment  of,  39;  status  of,  47. 

Gregory  XVI,  Pope,  16. 

Grenville,  George,  132. 

Guiteau,  Charles  J.,  assassin  of 
Garfield,  96. 

Hale,  Eugene,  49. 

"Half -breeds,"  in  NY.  Republi 
can  politics,  118,  129. 

Hamilton  Hotel,  143. 

Hanna,  Marcus  A.,  first  appear 
ance  of,  in  politics,  222. 

Harris,  Isham  G.,  109,  110. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  chosen  Pres 
ident,  161;  and  free  coinage, 
174;  attitude  of  Republicans 
toward  renomination  of,  187, 
188;  personal  characteristics 


of,  187;  offends  R.  in  matter 
of  Portland  collectorship,  188; 
R.'s  indifference  to  success  of, 
188;  defeated  for  reelection, 
188. 

Harrison,  Carter  H.,  50. 

Harvey,  George,  274. 

Havana,  destruction  of  Maine  in 
harbor  of,  232. 

Hawaii,  R.  opposed  to  annexa 
tion  of,  234,  235;  Spanish  war 
made  a  pretext  for  annexation 
of,  235. 

Hawley,  Joseph  R.,  195. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  20. 

Hayes,  R.  B.,  contested  election 
of,  45,  48,  59  /.;  recognizes 
Democratic  state  officers  in  La. 
and  S.C.,  48;  his  action  criti 
cized,  48;  his  theory  in  that  re 
gard,  48;  vetoes  Bland- Allison 
bill,  52;  administration  of 
Treasury  under,  76,  77. 

Henderson,  David  B.,  150,  162, 
164,  246,  260. 

Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  letter  to  R., 
131;  94. 

Hill,  Benjamin  H.,  on  the  pur 
pose  of  the  Potter  investiga 
tion,  74. 

Hinds,  Asher  C.,  238. 

Hiscock,  Frank,  candidate  for 
Republican  nomination  for 
Speaker  in  49th  Congress,  138; 
beaten  by  R.,  139;  49,  140, 
141,  149. 

Hitt,  Robert  R.,  164,  219. 

Hoar,  George  F.,  and  R.,  anec 
dote  of,  229,  230;  quoted,  on 
R.,  251;  letter  of,  to  R.,  259; 
51,  106. 

Holman,  William  S.,  137,  189. 

Hooker,  Charles  E.,  49. 


INDEX 


289 


House  of  Representatives,  anc 
filibustering,  80-83;  claims 
that  its  constitutional  pre 
rogative  to  originate  taxation 
was  abused  by  Senate,  108  ff.; 
enormous  hall  of,  113,  137, 
rules  of,  attacked  by  R.,  120, 
121, 152;  possibilities  of  filibus 
tering  illustrated,  121,  122;  R. 
the  real  Republican  leader  in, 
from  1883  to  his  retirement, 
128;  and  titular  leader  from 
1885,  140;  style  of  fighting  in, 
in  R.'s  day,  140;  constitution 
al  quorum  of,  as  established 
by  R.,  167  /.;  R.'s  decision 
thereon  the  most  important 
landmark  in  its  parliamentary 
history,  171;  increased  ability 
of,  to  transact  business,  171, 
172;  R.'s  ruling  finally  adopted 
by  Democrats,  172.  And  see 
Congress. 

Hubbard,  Thomas  H.,  262  n. 

Hunt,  Ward,  Justice  of  Supreme 
Court,  bill  for  retirement  of, 
favored  by  R.,  98,  99. 

Hurd,  Frank  H.,  158. 

Imperialism,  excerpts  from  MS. 

on,  found  among  R.'s  papers, 

252-259. 
Inconsistency,  R.'s  treatment  of 

charge  of,  117,  118. 
Indians,  R.  on  treaties  with,  78; 

R.  on  appropriation  for  educa 
tion  of,  186,  187. 
Industrial  crisis  of  1873,  still  felt 

in  1876,  64. 

Inflation  of  the  currency,  39. 
Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  letter  of,  to 

R.,  188. 
Insurance  companies,  R.  on  their 


claim  to  share  in  the  Geneva 
Award,  104-106. 

Internal  revenue  taxes,  bill  to  re 
peal  in  part,  in  47th  Congress, 
107-110. 

Interstate  Commerce  Commis 
sion,  bill  to  create,  125. 

Iron.     See  Free  list. 

Irving,  Sir  Henry,  compares 
Reed's  appearance  to  Stratford 
bust  of  Shakespeare,  57. 

James,  William,  quoted,  220  and 
n. 

Jeans,  J.  Stephen,  quoted,  200. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  53,  55. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  Fessenden's 
vote  on  impeachment  of,  23, 
24. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  R.  compared 
to,  25. 

Johnson,  Warren,  professor  at 
Bowdoin,  18. 

Jones,  Augustine,  letter  of,  to  R., 
and  R.'s  reply,  273. 

Jones,  John  Paul,  6. 

Judiciary  Committee,  R.  a  mem 
ber  of,  in  46th  Congress,  79,  80, 
and  Chairman  of,  in  47th,  97. 

Keifer,  J.  Warren,  chosen  Speak 
er  in  47th  Congress,  94;  titular 
leader  of  minority  in  House  in 
48th  Congress,  118,  120;  over 
shadowed  by  R.,  120;  49,  138. 

Kelley,  William  D.,  49. 

Kilgore,  Constantine  B.,  212. 

King,  William,  statue  of,  51. 

Knott,  J.  Proctor,  50. 

a  Follette,  Robert  M.,  164. 
EL  Fontaine,  Jean  de,  Fables, 
150. 


290 


INDEX 


Labor,  R.  on  the  struggle  be 
tween  capital  and,  135,  136. 

Land  grants,  and  the  railroads, 
111. 

Landis,  Charles  B.,  quoted,  on 
R.  as  Speaker,  176,  177. 

Leaders,  do  not  make  history, 
131  ff. 

Legal  Tender  Act,  R.'s  youthful 
view  of  constitutionality  of,  34. 

Legislature  of  Maine,  R.'s  serv 
ice  in  both  houses  of,  35-37. 

Leopold  II,  King  of  the  Belgians, 
264. 

Lever,  Charles,  147. 

Liberty,  highest  level  of,  255, 
256. 

Library  of  Congress,  R.  favors 
new  building  for,  111,  112. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  R.  on,  133; 
his  Gettysburg  speech,  257;  his 
Second  Inaugural,  259;  204. 

Littlefield,  Charles  E.,  225. 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  quoted,  on 
R.  and  Blaine,  90,  91;  supports 
R.  for  Speakership,  162;  on 
R.'s  conduct  in  the  Chair,  in 
51st  Congress,  177;  nominates 
R.  in  Convention  of  1896,  225; 
quoted,  on  R.  as  a  debater, 
250,  251;  compares  R.  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  251. 

Logan,  John  A.,  143. 

Logan,  Mary  S.  C.,  143. 

Long,  John  D.,  139,  140,  141, 
143,  144,  149. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  20. 

Lord,  Nathan,  20. 

Loring,  George  B.,  favors  ap 
propriation  for  William  and 
Mary  College,  53,  55;  50. 

Louis  Philippe,  King  of  the 
French,  16. 


Louisiana,  Democratic  state  of 
ficers  of,  recognized  by  Hayes, 
48;  electoral  votes  of,  counted 
for  Hayes,  59;  conditions  in,  in 
1876,  64;  report  of  minority  of 
Potter  Committee  on  result  of 
election  of  1876  in,  71,  72;  R. 
quoted  on  the  same  subject, 
73,  74. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  147, 
251. 

Lyford,  Master,  of  Portland 
Boys'  High  School,  R.'s  teach 
er,  9,  18;  R.'s  appreciation  of, 
10. 

Lygonia,  Province  of,  founded  by 
Cleve,  3,  4. 

MacDonald,  T.  L.,  276  n. 

McKinley,  William,  with  R. 
leads  opposition  to  Mills  bill, 
156;  R.'s  leading  opponent  in 
contest  for  Speakership  of 
51st  Congress,  162;  in  the  can 
vass  for  nomination  in  1896, 
221  jf.;  his  advantage  over  R. 
on  the  tariff,  221,  222;  his  de 
feat  in  Speakership  contest 
made  him  President,  222;  ob 
tains  many  Southern  dele 
gates,  222,  223;  endorsed  by 
Vermont  and  Illinois,  223;  calls 
extra  session  of  55th  Congress 
to  revise  tariff,  231 ;  opposed  to 
war  with  Spain,  233;  seeks  to 
stay  action,  233,  234;  acquires 
Philippines  by  treaty,  237, 
238;  49,  79,  100,  139,  164,  169, 
181,  251,  252.  And  see  Tariff 
bill  of  1890. 

"McKinley ism,"  221. 

McMahon,  John  A.,  on  Potter 
Committee,  59. 


INDEX 


291 


McMillin,  Benton,  198. 
Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  Lord,  132 

147. 

Maine,  campaign  of  1876  in,  43 
44;  a  "September  state,"  43 
Greenbackism  in,  76,  85,  86: 
carried  by  "Fusionists"  in 
1879,  86,  87;  the  "count  out,' 
86,  denounced  by  R.,  87;  poli 
tics  the  principal  occupation 
of  voters  in,  87;  bitter  contest 
in  (Sept.  1880),  results  in  a 
drawn  battle,  89;  R.  chosen 
one  of  Congressmen-at-large 
for  (1882),  111;  R.'s  toast  to, 
268. 

Maine,  First  Congressional  Dis 
trict  of,  contest  for  nomina 
tion  in  (1876),  40,  41;  R.  nom 
inated,  41,  and  elected,  44; 
the  county  issue,  42;  bitter 
ness  of  the  campaign,  42;  R.'s 
speeches,  44;  R.  charged  with 
neglecting  its  affairs,  130,  131; 
R.  nominated  by  acclamation 
by  Republicans  of,  from  1886 
to  1898,  137;  R.'s  campaign  in 
1890,  177,  178,  and  election 
by  his  largest  plurality,  178; 
R.  renominated  by  Republi 
cans  of,  in  1896,  227;  R.'s  fare 
well  address  to  Republicans  of, 
238,  239. 

Maine,  battleship,  destruction 
of,  in  Havana  harbor,  and  its 
effect,  232,  233. 

Maine,  colony,  claimed  by  Mas 
sachusetts  Bay,  4,  5;  charac 
ter  and  history  of,  5,  6. 

Manley,  Joseph  H.,  his  pre-Con- 
vention/cmz  pas  in  1896,  224; 
his  letter  to  R.,  224. 

Marble,  Manton,  and  the  Pot 


ter  Committee  investigation, 
69. 

Marie  Amelie,  Queen  of  the 
French,  16. 

Marshall,  John,  53. 

Massachusetts,  Elaine's  attack 
on,  51;  endorses  R.  for  nomin 
ation  in  1896,  223. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  Colony  of, 
asserts  claim  to  Maine,  4,  5. 

Matthews,  Stanley,  61. 

Merrill,  Rev.  S.  H.,  R.'s  father- 
in-law,  38. 

Merrill,  Susan,  marries  R.  (1870), 
38.  And  see  Reed,  Susan 
(Merrill). 

Mills,  Roger  Q.,  sponsor  for  tariff 
bill  of  1887,  155;  R.'s  collo 
quies  with,  160;  50. 

Milton,  John,  53,  55. 

Mitchell,  Experience,  R.'s  ma 
ternal  ancestor,  3. 

Mitchell,  Matilda,  marries  T.  B. 
Reed  I,  3.  And  see  Reed,  Ma 
tilda  (Mitchell). 

Monetary  standard,  question  of, 
an  engrossing  one,  during  R.'s 
whole  career,  47;  not  easily 
settled,  77.  And  see  Gold 
standard. 

Money,  Hernando  D.,  49. 

Money  issue,  not  squarely  joined 
in  campaign  of  1880,  84. 

VIonroe  Doctrine,  in  the  Ven 
ezuelan  boundary  controversy, 
219;  257,  258. 

Monticello,  Congressional  ex 
cursion  to,  229. 

Moore,  John,  261. 

Morgan,  J.  P.  and  Co.,  pro 
posed  sale  of  bonds  to,  215, 
216. 

VIorrison,  William  R.,  on  Potter 


INDEX 


Committee,  59;  sponsor  for 
tariff  bill  of  1886,  154. 

Morton,  Levi  P.,  79. 

Mugwumps,  in  New  York,  in 
election  of  1884,  130;  R.  on  re 
lation  of  Democratic  adminis 
tration  to,  137. 

Murch,  Thompson  H.,  elected  to 
47th  Congress  from  Maine  as 
a  Greenbacker,  107;  on  Na 
tional  banking  system,  107. 

National  banks,  bill  for  extension 
of  charters  of,  107. 

National  election  law,  repealed 
by  53d  Congress,  197,  198. 
And  see  Deputy  marshals. 

Navy  of  U.S.,R.  enlists  in  (April, 
1864),  and  is  honorably  dis 
charged  from,  30;  his  service 
in,  31,  32;  practically  obsolete, 
in  1883, 122;  R.  favors  modern 
izing  of,  122;  debate  on  ap 
propriations  for,  122-125. 

Negro.     See  Race  question. 

New  England  Society  of  New 
York,  R.'s  Forefathers'  Day 
address  before,  136,  137. 

New  Hampshire,  plan  for  union 
of,  with  Mass.,  4,  5 ;  attitude  of, 
toward  R.'s  nomination,  223. 

New  Haven,  R.'s  speech  at 
(1890),  179. 

New  York,  and  the  money  issue, 
84,  85;  Republican  factions  in, 
responsible  for  reaction  in 
1882,  118;  Cleveland  chosen 
governor  of,  118;  the  decisive 
state  in  election  of  1884, 
129;  "Stalwarts  "and  "Half- 
breeds"  in,  129;  carried  by 
Cleveland,  130. 

New  York  City,  fight  over  col- 


lectorship  of  port,  118;  R.  be 
gins  practice  of  law  in,  261. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  quoted, 
87. 

New  York  Sun,  quoted  on  R. 
(1881),  93  and  n. 

New  York  Times,  139. 

New  York  Tribune,  cipher  tele 
grams  translated  by  members 
of  staff  of,  65;  155,  179. 

Newcastle,  first  Duke  of,  132. 

Newman,  John  Henry,  16. 

North  American  Review,  189,  240. 

Northern  Light,  the,  school  paper, 
conducted  by  R.,  11,  12. 

Norwood,  Thomas  M.,  150,  151. 

Nott,  Eliphalet,  16. 

Oregon,  attempted  bribery  in,  71. 

Orth,  Godlove  S.,  candidate  for 
Speaker,  93,  94;  proposes  new 
rule  concerning  appointment 
of  committees,  97,  98. 

Outhwaite,  Joseph  H.,  205,  206. 

Packard,  Alpheus  S.,  Professor 
at  Bowdoin,  17. 

Paine,  A.  G.,  262. 

Parity,  policy  of  the  government 
to  maintain,  173. 

Parliamentary  procedure,  R.'s 
deep  interest  in,  80. 

Payne,  Sereno  E.,  164. 

Pelham,  Henry,  132. 

Pelton,  W.  T.,  and  the  cipher 
telegrams,  66  ff.\  R.'s  cross- 
examination  of,  66-70;  R.'s 
comments  on  testimony  of,  71. 

People,  the,  not  leaders,  make 
history,  131  /. 

Peucinian  Society,  at  Bowdoin, 
20. 

Phelps,  William  Walter,  139, 149. 


INDEX 


293 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  of  Harvard,  R 
invited  to  deliver  annual  ad 
dress  before,  263. 
Philadelphia,  R.  speaks  in,  on 
agitation  of  the  tariff,  127, 
128. 

Philippines,  purchase  of,  leads 
to  war  with  natives,  237 
status  of,  with  regard  to  U.S., 
237;  R.'s  opposition  to  war 
with,  247,  248;  R.  on  military 
policy  of  U.S.  in,  264;  purchase 
of,  ridiculed  by  R.,  266;  257, 
275. 

Pierce,  Franklin,  20. 
Pitt,  William,  132. 
Pittsburg,  R.'s  speech  at  (1890), 

178,  179. 

Plaisted,  Harris  M.,  37. 
Platt,  Thomas  C.,  129. 
Portland,  in  the  eighteen-thir- 
ties,  8,  9;  boys  of,  8,  9;  centen 
nial  of,  R.'s  oration  at,  4,  23- 
25,  153,  154,  244;  early  vicis 
situdes  of,  6;  R.  begins  practice 
at,  34,  35;  R.  city  solicitor  of, 
39;  supports  R.  for  nomina 
tion  for  Congress,  40,  41;  R.'s 
home  on  Deering  St.,  147,  148; 
Harrison  offends  R.  in  matter 
of  collector  ship  of,  188;  view 
across  harbor  of,  described 
by  R.,  244;  R.  attends  "Old 
Home"  celebration  at,  268, 
269. 

Portland  Advertiser,  quoted,  42. 
Portland  Boys'  High  School,  R. 

teaches  in,  30. 
Portland  Colony.     See  Lygonia, 

province  of. 
Porto  Rico,  256. 
Post-Office    appropriation    bill, 
attacked  by  Reed,  126,  127. 


Potter,  Clarkson  N.,  chairman  of 
Committee  to  investigate  elec 
tion  of  1876,  59/.;  49. 
Potter  Committee  (1877),  inves 
tigates  election  of  1876,  59- 
64;  and  cipher  telegrams,  65- 
72;  divided  on  party  lines  in  its 
report,  70-72;  minority  report 
quoted,  70,  71;  majority  re 
port  of,  72;  report  of,  not  acted 
on,  72;  discussion  as  to  pur 
pose  of  its  investigation,  74. 

Powell,  John  W.,  149. 

Prentiss,  Sergeant  S.,  20. 

Presidential  election  of  1876,  in 
vestigation  of  (Potter  Commit 
tee),  59  ff.\  discussed  by  R.  in 
46th  Congress,  73,  74. 

Presidential  election  of  1884, 
bitterly  contested,  129,  130; 
N.Y.  decisive  state  in,  129, 
130. 

Presidential  election  of  1888, 
tariff  main  subject  of  discos- 
sion  in,  161. 

Previous  question,  the,  176. 

Proctor,  Redfield,  265. 

Protection,  R.'s  eulogy  of,  158; 
R.  on  the  history  of,  199,  200. 

Public  Sentiment,  R.  on  the 
power  of,  134,  135. 

Punch,  147,  257,  258. 

Puritan  Revolt,  the,  133. 

Pusey,  Edward  B.,  16. 

Putnam,  William  L.,  20. 

Quorum  of  the  House,  R.'s  early 
views  on  the  constitutional 
provision  regarding,  81,  82; 
difficulty  of  obtaining,  in  51st 
Congress,  165,  166;  "counted" 
by  R.  (Jan.  29,  1880),  167 /.; 
principle  of  R.'s  ruling  on,  fin- 


294 


INDEX 


ally  adopted  by  Democrats, 
171,  172,  211-214;  R.  defends 
his  ruling  thereon  hi  his  1890 
campaign,  178. 

Race  question,  discussed  in 
House  (1884),  on  bill  to  create 
Interstate  Commerce  Commis 
sion,  125,  126;  179,  242. 

Railroads,  R.  opposes  municipal 
aid  to,  37. 

Randall,  Samuel  J.,  elected 
Speaker  of  House  in  45th  Con- 
gress,  50,  and  in  46th,  79;  his 
protectionist  principles  lead  to 
his  supersession  by  Carlisle  as 
Democratic  leader  in  House, 
119;  his  signal  service  to  the 
country  in  1877, 119;  R.'s  opin 
ion  of,  119;  and  appropriations 
for  the  Navy,  122,  123;  joins 
forces  with  Republicans  to  de 
feat  Morrison  bill,  154;  49,  52, 
97,  115,  116,  117,  137,  164. 

Reade,  original  form  of  Reed,  2. 

Reade,  Charles,  147. 

Reade,  Mary  Cornwall,  2. 

Reade,  Sir  Thomas,  2. 

Reade,  Thomas,  R.'s  immigrant 
ancestor,  2. 

Reade  family  in  America,  2. 

Readjusters,  in  47th  Congress, 
94. 

Reagan,  John  H.,  50. 

Reed,  Jacob,  R.'s  ancestor,  2. 

Reed,  Joseph,  R.'s  grandfather, 
2,  3. 

Reed,  Katherine,  R.'s  daughter, 
anecdote  of,  248;  263,  264. 
And  see  Balentine,  Katherine 
Reed. 

Reed,  Lydia  Ware,  R.'s  great- 
grandmother,  2. 


Reed,  Mary  (Brackett),  R.'s 
grandmother,  3. 

Reed,  Matilda  (Mitchell),  R.'s 
mother,  3,  277. 

Reed,  Susan  (Merrill),  R.'s  wife, 
of  great  assistance  to  him  in 
his  work,  38,  39;  144,  145,  263, 
264. 

Reed,  Thomas  Brackett  I.,  R.'s 
father,  his  relations  with  his 
son,  7;  3,  277. 

REED,  THOMAS  BRACKETT. 

I.  1839-1877.  Birth  and 
ancestry,  1-3,  6,  7;  his  birth 
place,  7  n.;  his  relations  with 
his  father,  7,  8;  describes  the 
boys  of  Portland,  and  their  di 
versions,  8,  9;  how  they  cele 
brated  the  "Fourth,"  9;  at 
the  Boys'  High  School,  9-12; 
Master  Lyford,  9,  10;  J.  W. 
Symonds  quoted,  on  his  school 
life,  10;  conducts  the  Northern 
Light,  11,  12;  his  contributions 
thereto,  12;  his  early  interest 
in  politics,  12,  13;  enters  Bow- 
doin  College,  14;  member  of 
class  crew,  and  of  the  Peucin- 
ian,  20;  prominent  in  Debating 
Club,  20,  21;  opposed  to  secret 
societies,  21,  22;  and  Amos 
Allen,  22;  teaches  school  in 
winter,  22;  loan  from  W.  P. 
Fessenden  enables  him  to  grad 
uate,  22,  23;  his  gratitude,  23; 
defends  W.  P.  F.  for  his  vote 
on  Johnson  impeachment,  23; 
repays  the  loan,  23;  his  trib 
ute  to  the  Fessendens  in  his 
oration  at  Portland  Centen 
nial,  23-25;  his  rank  in  college, 
25;  elected  to  Phi  Beta  Kap 
pa,  25;  his  Commencement 


INDEX 


295 


"part,"  26;  essays  written  in 
college  still  extant,  26;  his 
fondness  for  theological  dis 
cussion,  26,  27;  letter  to  Rev. 
H.  Carpenter  on  his  religious 
belief,  27,  28;  his  deep  regard 
for  Bowdoin,  28;  criticizes  col 
lege  education  of  his  day,  29; 
teaches  after  graduation  in 
Portland,  and  Stockton,  Cal., 
30;  studies  law.  30;  paymaster 
in  the  Navy,  April,  1864,  to 
Nov.,  1865,  30-32;  his  own 
views  thereon,  31,  32;  describes 
people  of  California,  32-34; 
admitted  to  the  bar  there,  34; 
deems  the  Legal  Tender  Act 
constitutional,  34;  admitted  to 
bar  in  Maine,  and  begins  prac 
tice  in  Portland,  34;  his  first 
case  in  the  Supreme  Court,  34, 
35;  rises  rapidly  at  the  bar,  35; 
in  both  houses  of  the  Maine 
Legislature,  35-37;  his  me 
morial  address  on  W.  P.  Fessen- 
den,  35;  opposes  capital  pun 
ishment,  36,  and  government 
aid  to  railroads,  37;  thrice 
elected  Attorney-General  of 
Maine,  37,  38;  the  youngest 
man  to  hold  the  office,  37;  his 
work  therein,  38;  marries  Su 
san  Merrill,  38;  submits  his 
writings  and  speeches  to  her 
criticism,  38,  39;  defends 
Grant's  vetoes  of  inflation 
measures,  39;  declares  for 
sound  money,  39;  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  profession,  39;  city 
solicitor  of  Portland,  39;  can 
didate  for  Republican  nomina 
tion  for  Congress  in  1st  Maine 
District  (1876),  39,  40;  the 


"county  issue,"  40,  41,  42; 
supported  by  Portland,  40,  41; 
receives  nomination,  41;  his 
canvass  of  the  district,  42-44; 
opposed  by  friends  of  rival 
candidate,  42,  43;  tone  of  his 
speeches,  44;  elected,  44. 

II.  Congressional  service  prior 
to  Speakership  (1877-1891). 
—  Takes  oath  at  special  ses 
sion  of  45th  Congress,  49; 
appointed  to  Committee  on 
Territories,  50;  takes  little 
part  in  debate  at  special  ses 
sion,  50;  his  first  speech,  51; 
speaks  on  presentation  of 
statue  of  W.  King,  51;  votes 
against  Bland-Allison  bill,  and 
to  sustain  veto,  52;  on  diplo 
matic  salaries,  52;  his  first  real 
speech  in  opposition  to  bill  for 
relief  of  William  and  Mary  Col 
lege,  53-56;  effect  of  the  speech, 
56;  on  Democratic  member 
ship  of  Potter  Committee, 
60;  significance  of  his  appoint 
ment  as  one  of  four  Republi 
can  members  of  the  Commit 
tee,  60;  the  best  qualified  of 
all  for  its  work,  60;  his  cross- 
examination  of  J.  E.  Anderson, 
63;  his  theory  as  to  Tilden's 
responsibility  for  cipher  tele 
grams,  66  ff.\  his  cross-exam 
ination  of  Pelton,  66-69;  his 
reputation  enhanced  by  his 
share  in  the  investigation,  70, 
74;  his  minority  report,  quoted, 
70-72;  rejected  in  1878,  75; 
opposes  Bland-Allison  Act, 
77;  his  interest  in  Indian  af 
fairs,  78;  his  view  of  the  work  of 
the  Committee  on  Territories, 


296 


INDEX 


78,  79;  on  Judiciary  Commit 
tee  in  46th  Congress,  79;  his  in 
terest  in  parliamentary  pro 
cedure,  and  its  result,  80;  en 
gages  in  filibustering,  80,  81; 
defends  the  then  customary 
construction  of  constitutional 
provision  regarding  a  quorum, 
81,  82;  on  party  government, 
83;  an  uncompromising  foe  of 
inflation,  85;  and  Solon  Chase, 
85,  86;  his  renomination  in 
1890  opposed,  without  suc 
cess,  86;  in  the  Fusion  "count 
out"  in  Maine,  87;  his  speeches 
in  the  campaign,  88-89;  elect 
ed,  89;  Elaine  delegate  to  Re 
publican  National  Convention 
of  1880,  89;  his  opinion  of  Gar- 
field,  90;  his  relations  with, 
and  opinion  of,  Blaine,  90  and 
n.,  91;  candidate  for  Speaker 
in  47th  Congress,  93,  94;  on 
a  contested  election  in  Utah, 
95,  96;  chairman  of  Judiciary 
Committee,  97;  member  of 
Rules  Committee,  97;  opposes 
Orth  resolution  for  changing 
method  of  appointment  of 
committees,  97,  98;  favors  bill 
to  retire  Justice  Hunt,  98,  99; 
on  talking  for  the  "County  of 
Buncombe,"  99;  favors  wom 
an  suffrage,  99,  100;  his 
views  thereon,  100-102;  and 
Chinese  Exclusion,  102;  favors 
bill  for  a  tariff  commission, 
102;  introduces  bill  for  distri 
bution  of  Geneva  Award,  102; 
opposes  allowing  insurance 
companies  to  participate,  104, 
105,  106;  his  seat  unsuccess 
fully  contested,  106,  107;  on 


the  constitutional  prerogative 
of  the  House  to  originate  rev 
enue  bills,  109;  favors  civil-ser 
vice  reform,  110;  opposes  free 
ships,  110;  on  land  grants  to 
railroads,  111;  elected  to  48th 
Congress  "at  large,"  111,  118; 
favors  bill  for  new  Congres 
sional  Library,  111,  112; favors 
reducing  size  of  hall  of  the 
House,  113;  temporary  leader 
of  the  House  in  So.  Carolina 
election  contest,  117;  inconsist 
ent  in  matters  of  filibustering, 
117;  his  view  of  consistency, 
118;  his  opinion  of  S.  J.  Ran 
dall,  119;  overshadows  Keifer 
as  minority  leader  in  48th 
Congress,  120;  attacks  rules  of 
the  House,  120,  121;  ridicules 
majority  for  inability  to  keep  a 
quorum,  121,  122;  opposes  pol 
icy  of  starving  the  Navy,  122- 
124;  colloquy  with  Cox,  124, 
125;  on  the  race  question,  126; 
criticizes  Post-Office  appropri 
ation  bill,  126,  127;  speaks  in 
Phila.  on  agitation  of  the  tar 
iff,  128;  finally  attains  leader 
ship  of  Republican  party  in  the 
House,  128;  his  campaign  in 
1884,  130;  supports  Blaine, 
130;  charged  with  neglecting 
the  interests  of  his  district, 
130,  131;  letter  of  Hewitt  to, 
on  that  subject,  130,  131;  ad 
dress  at  Colby  University  on 
the  real  makers  of  history,  131- 
136;  speaks  before  New  Eng 
land  Society  of  N.Y.,  137; 
nominated  for  reelection  by  ac 
clamation  in  1886,  and  there 
after,  137;  denounces  Cleveland 


INDEX 


297 


administration  for  its  attitud 
on    civil-service  reform,   137 
138;  on  the  administration  an< 
the  Mugwumps,  137;  opposec 
to  free  passes,  138;  Republi 
can  candidate  for  Speakership 
defeating  Hiscock,    138,    139 
149;  not  a  compromiser,  139 
140;  becomes  titular  leader  o 
Republicans,     140;     goes     to 
Committee     of     Ways     am 
Means,   140;  his  selection  as 
leader  popular  in  the  country 
140;  his  humorous  account  oJ 
the  contest  for  leadership,  140 
141;   his   burlesque  platform, 
141,  142;  debate  on  pensions 
(1886)  described  in  his  diary, 
150,    151;   again   attacks   the 
rules,  152;  supports  Cleveland 
in  opposition  to  silver  legisla 
tion,  153;  answers  criticism  of 
his  reference  to  S.  Fessenden 
in    Portland    Centennial    ad 
dress,  153,  154;  leads  opposi 
tion  to  Mills  tariff  bill,  156; 
his    powerful    speech    closing 
general   debate,    156-160;   on 
national     defence,    161;     his 
tariff     speech      an     effective 
campaign  document  in  1888, 
161. 

III.  The  Fifty-first  Congress 
(1889-1891).  —  As  candidate 
for  Speakership,  opposed  by 
McKinley,  162,  163;  nomi 
nated  by  a  majority  of  one,  and 
elected,  163;  opportunities  for 
public  service  inherent  in  the 
office,  163;  his  speech  on  tak 
ing  the  chair,  164;  narrowness 
of  Republican  majority  in 
House  causes  trouble  for  the 


Speaker,   165;   his   plans  laid 
to  meet  the  emergency,   166; 
his  proposed  course  overturns 
Republican  as  well  as  Demo 
cratic  precedents,  166;  doubts 
whether  his  party  will  support 
him,  166,  167;  determines  to 
resign  if  not  sustained,  167  and 
n.;  "counts"  a  quorum,  167; 
states  the  case  to  the  House, 
168;  denounced  by  Democrats, 
169;   his   ruling   discussed   in 
noteworthy  debate,  169,  170, 
and  sustained,  171;  importance 
of  his  ruling,  171,  172;  in  suc 
ceeding  Congress,  by  filibus 
tering,    forces    Democrats  to 
ratify  his  ruling,  171,  172;  212, 
213;  significance  of  his  achieve 
ment,  172;  strongly  opposed  to 
free  coinage,  174;  on  the  Sher 
man  Silver-Purchase  bill,  175; 
charged  with  impairing  "free 
dom  of  debate,"  176;  his  course 
in  that  regard,  described  by 
C.  B.  Landis,  176, 177;  the  cen 
tral  subject  of  attack  in  parti 
san  debates  of   1889-90,  177; 
his     conduct     described     by 
Lodge,  177;  elected  in  1890  by 
the  largest  plurality  of  his  ca 
reer,  178;  his  speech  at  Pitts- 
burg  (1890),  179;  favors  con 
trol  of  national  elections  by  na 
tional  laws,  179;  his  speeches 
at     various      places     attract 
great  crowds,  179,  180;  his  de 
meanor   in   the   chair  in   the 
short  session,  181;  Democrats 
oppose    usual    resolution    of 
thanks  to,  182;  his  reply  to 
the  resolution,  182;  loyalty  of 
Republican    colleagues,    183; 


298 


INDEX 


his  portrait  painted  by  Sar 
gent,  183. 

IV.  From  the  Fifty-second 
Congress  to  his  Retirement.  — 
Minority  leader  in  52d  Con 
gress,  184;  foments  Democratic 
differences  on  free  coinage, 
185;  pokes  fun  at  Bryan,  185, 
186;  how  he  led  the  minority, 
186,  187;  offended  by  Pres. 
Harrison  in  matter  of  Portland 
Collectorship,  187,  188;  letter 
to  C.  Fairchild  on  Harrison's 
renomination,  188;  his  North 
American  article  on  51st  and 
52d  Congresses,  189;  proposes 
resolution  of  thanks  to  Speaker 
Crisp,  189, 190;  again  minority 
leader  in  53d  Congress,  191; 
his  command  of  the  procedure 
of  the  House,  191;  stands  with 
Cleveland  for  repeal  of  Silver- 
Purchase  law,  193-195;  op 
poses  repeal  of  National  Elec 
tion  law,  197;  in  debate  on 
Wilson  tariff  bill,  198;  closes 
debate  for  Republicans,  199- 
205;  speech  on  rule  relating  to 
conference  on  Wilson  bill,  205- 
206;  on  Cleveland's  letter  to 
Wilson,  criticizing  Senate,  206; 
ridicules  conference  report, 
207,  208,  209;  on  the  free-list 
bills,  209,  210;  proposes  cer 
tain  reforms  in  the  rules,  211, 
212;  leads  filibuster  hi  53d 
Congress,  212,  213;  his  plan  to 
remedy  condition  of  the  Treas 
ury,  rejected  by  Democrats, 
214;  his  attitude  toward  pro 
posed  issue  of  gold  bonds,  215; 
replies  to  criticism  of  his 
course,  215, 216;  chosen  Speak 


er  of  54th  Congress,  217;  ad 
vantages  of  his  position,  217; 
speech  on  taking  the  chair,  217, 
218;  supports  Cleveland  in 
matters  not  clearly  partisan, 
218;  proposed  as  Republican 
candidate  for  Presidency,  220, 
221;  at  a  disadvantage  with 
McKinley  on  the  tariff,  221, 
222;  secures  few  delegates 
from  Southern  states,  222;  be 
lieves  use  of  money  respon 
sible,  223;  relations  with  Roose 
velt,  223;  attitude  of  New 
England  toward  his  candidacy, 
223;  defection  of  Vermont,  dis 
astrous,  223;  Manley's  faux 
pas,  explained  in  letter  to,  224 ; 
his  vote  in  the  Convention, 
225;  his  friends  responsible  for 
hard-money  plank  in  plat 
form,  225;  decides  to  run  again 
for  Congress,  226;  letter  to 
Dalzell,  226;  campaigns  all 
over  the  country,  226;  his 
speech  accepting  renomina 
tion,  widely  approved,  227, 
228;  letter  of  Roosevelt  there 
on,  228;  describes  an  incident 
of  a  trip  to  Monticello,  229, 
230;  chosen  Speaker  of  55th 
Congress,  231;  firmly  against 
war  with  Spain,  233;  opposes 
conference  report  on  war  reso 
lution,  233,  234;  opposes  an 
nexation  of  Hawaii,  234,  235, 
236;  takes  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  seriously,  235;  his 
twelfth  election  to  the  House 
(1898),  236;  disbelieves  in  co 
lonial  theory  of  the  Consti 
tution,  237;  acquisition  of  Phil 
ippines  causes  his  retirement 


INDEX 


299 


from  public  life,  238;  elected  to 
56th  Congress,  but  announces 
his  retirement  to  Republicans 
of  his  district,  238,  239;  bitter 
ly  opposed  to  war  with  Phil 
ippines,  247-248;  MS.  essay 
on  Imperialism,  253-259;  urged 
not  to  retire,  259,  260;  letters 
of  G.  F.  Hoar  and  J.  H.  Brown- 
well,  259. 

V.  Last  Years  (1899-1902). 
—  Begins    practice     in    New 
York,  261-263;  his  manner  in 
Court,  262,  263;  invited  to  de 
liver  oration  before  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  of  Harvard,   263;  re 
tains    his    interest    in    public 
questions,  especially  the  Phil 
ippines,    264;    his    imaginary 
petition   of    Gen.    Weyler   to 
Congress,    264-266;    ridicules 
purchase   of   the   Philippines, 
266;  letter  to  J.  C.  Courts,  266; 
addresses     Newspaper     Pub 
lishers'   Association,   267;   his 
visits  to  Washington,  267,  268; 
speaks     at     Portland     "Old 
Home"  celebration,  268;  his 
notable    speech    at    Bowdoin 
College  Centennial,   268-272; 
seeks  to  reduce  weight  by  diet 
ing,   274;  signs  of  ill  health, 
274;    taken    suddenly    ill    at 
Washington,  275;  his  last  days 
and  death,  276,  277;  his  burial 
in   Portland,    277;   statue   of, 
erected  by  popular  subscrip 
tion,  277. 

VI.  In    various    aspects.  — 
His  personal  appearance,  57; 
said  by  Sir  H.  Irving  to  resem 
ble  bust    of   Shakespeare,  57. 
His  characteristics  as  a  debater, 


57,  58,  139,  140,  186,  187,  249, 
250,  251.  His  humor  and  ready 
wit  illustrated  by  examples  of 
many  varieties,  83,  85,  86,  88, 
114-116,  122,  124,  137,  141, 
142,  145,  160,  168,  182,  185, 
188,  195,  205,  206,  208,  209, 
211,  212,  229,  246-249;  quality 
of  his  wit,  245,  246,  250; 
Springer  a  favorite  object  of 
his  raillery,  246;  enjoyed  mak 
ing  fun  of  the  Senate,  251, 
252;  his  History  of  the  U.S., 
published  in  1940,  252.  Social 
life,  in  Washington,  143,  144; 
the  Cumberland  Club  in  Port 
land,  145,  146;  his  reading,  147, 
148;  addicted  to  French  books, 
148;  extracts  from  his  diary, 
written  in  French,  148-151; 
walking  and  bicycling  his  fa 
vorite  exercises,  151;  a  delight 
ful  companion  in  society,  244, 
245;  characteristics  of  his  con 
versation,  245,  246;  his  circle  of 
friends  in  New  York,  263;  vis 
its  Europe  (1899),  263,  264; 
yachting,  264;  dinner  of  the 
Class  of  1860,  272,  273;  letters 
from  and  to  A.  Jones,  273.  His 
writings,  in  magazines,  etc., 
style  of,  illustrated  by  divers 
quotations,  240-244;  descrip 
tion  of  view  across  Portland 
Harbor,  244;  his  unpublished 
essay  on  Imperialism,  253-259. 

Reed,  Simpson,  Thacher,  and 
Barnum,  R.'s  law  firm  in  N.Y., 
261. 

Reed's  Rules,  247. 

Religion,  R.'s  views  on,  27,  28. 

Republican  National  Committee, 
224. 


300 


INDEX 


Republican  National  Conven 
tion  of  1880,  89;  of  1884. 
R.'s  characterization  of,  130; 
of  1892,  189;  of  1896,  election 
of  delegates  to,  nomination  of 
McKinley  by,  and  adoption 
of  hard-money  plank,  222- 
225. 

Republican  party,  favors  pres 
ence  of  U.S.  marshal  at  polls, 
83;  triumph  of,  in  1880,  89; 
division  in,  after  Garfield's 
election,  96;  effect  of  factional 
strife  in,  in  New  York,  118;  R. 
on  the  past  and  future  of,  178; 
attitude  of,  toward  renomina- 
tion  of  Harrison,  187,  188;  tri 
umph  of,  in  elections  of  1894, 
210,  217;  canvass  for  presiden 
tial  nomination  of  in  1896, 
220  ff.;  campaign  of  1896, 
waged  by,  in  defence  of  gold 
standard,  225,  226;  elects  Pres 
ident,  and  majority  in  both 
houses,  229,  231. 

Republican  State  Convention  of 
Maine  (1874),  R.'s  speech  be 
fore,  39. 

Republicans,  and  the  surplus 
revenue,  107  ff. ;  charged  with 
"swapping  the  Constitution 
for  a  high  tariff,"  110;  small 
majority  of,  in  47th  Congress, 
116;  R.  becomes  titular  leader 
of,  in  House,  140;  in  51st  Con 
gress,  nominate  R.  for  Speaker 
by  close  vote,  163;  small  ma 
jority  of,  in  House,  and  diffi 
culty  in  maintaining  a  quorum, 
164^.;  sustain  R.  in  "counting 
a  quorum,"  170,  171;  large 
minority  of,  favor  free  coinage, 
173;  loyalty  of  to  R.,  183;  atti 


tude  of,  on  repeal  of  Silver- 
Purchase  law,  194-196. 

Revenue,  large  surplus  in,  96; 
Republicans  seek  to  reduce 
surplus  in  by  repealing  inter 
nal  revenue  taxes,  107  ff. 

Rhode  Island,  endorses  R.  for 
nomination  in  1896,  223. 

Robeson,  George  M.,  97. 

Robinson,  George  D.,  50,  79. 

Rogers,  Henry  H.,  264,  274. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  supports 
R.  for  Presidential  nomina 
tion,  223;  letters  of,  to  R.,  228, 
267;  275. 

Root,  Elihu,  on  R.'s  purpose  to 
resign  Speakership  under  cer 
tain  circumstances,  167  and  n. 

Rules,  Committee  on,  R.  a  mem 
ber  of,  in  47th  Congress,  97. 

Saint-Simon,  Due  de,  Memoirs, 
149. 

San  Jose*,  Cal.,  R.  studies  law  at, 
30;  R.  admitted  to  bar  at,  34. 

Sandwich  Islands.     See  Hawaii. 

Sargent,  John  S.,  paints  R.'s  por 
trait  for  House  lobby,  183. 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  240. 

Scott,  Winfield,  53. 

Scriptures,  R.  a  student  of,  148. 

Secret  college  societies,  R.  op 
posed  to,  21,  22. 

Self-government,  R.'s  view  of 
right  of,  235. 

Senate  of  U.S.,  raises  constitu 
tional  question  by  adding  re 
vision  of  tariff  to  bill  to  repeal 
internal  revenue  taxes,  107Jf.; 
a  favorite  subject  of  R.'s  hu 
mor,  251,  252. 

Sevigne1,  Madame  de,  Letters,  149. 

Sherman,  James  S.,  144,  164. 


INDEX 


301 


Sherman,  John,  letter  to  R.  on 
Potter  investigation,  61,  64, 
70,  216. 

Sherman  Silver-Purchase  bill, 
provisions  of,  174;  passed  by 
51st  Congress,  175;  Cleveland 
seeks  repeal  of,  before  inaugu 
ration,  185;  bill  to  repeal,  intro 
duced  in  52d  Congress,  185; 
Cleveland  calls  extra  session  of 
53d  Congress  to  repeal,  192/.; 
repeal  of,  opposed  by  many 
Democrats,  193,  and  supported 
by  R.,  193,  194;  debate  on  in 
troduction  of  bill,  194;  it  passes 
by  Republican  aid,  194,  196. 

Shipbuilding  industry  in  U.S., 
R.  favors  development  of,  110, 
111. 

Shoreham  Hotel,  144. 

Silver,  use  of,  in  the  currency, 
173  f.\  coinage  of  Bland- Alli 
son  dollars,  173;  accumulation 
of  bullion  in  Treasury  under 
Sherman  Act,  192;  demoneti 
zation  of,  194,  195.  And  see 
Bland-Allison  Act,  Free  coin 
age. 

Silver  coinage,  Cleveland's  oppo 
sition  to,  supported  by  R.,  152, 
153. 

Silver  dollar,  bullion  value  of, 
not  sustained  by  Sherman  Act, 
192. 

Smith,  Charles  Emery,  149. 

Smith,  William  Alden,  supports 
R.  for  Presidential  nomination, 
223. 

Smyth,  Egbert  C.,  Professor  at 
Bowdoin,  17. 

Smyth,  William,  Professor  at 
Bowdoin,  17. 

Solomons,  Hardy,  71. 


Sound  Money,  R.  early  declares 
in  favor  of,  39. 

Sous  les  Tilleuls,  150. 

South  Carolina,  Democratic 
state  officers  of,  recognized  by 
Hayes,  48;  electoral  vote  of, 
cast  for  Hayes,  59;  conditions 
in,  in  1876,  64;  election  contest 
from,  117. 

Southern  States,  McKinley  dele 
gates  from,  in  1896,  222;  al 
leged  use  of  money  in  securing 
delegates  from,  223. 

Spain,  weakness  of,  258. 

Spanish  War,  the,  cause  of,  233; 
R.  strongly  opposed  to,  233; 
made  inevitable  by  action  of 
Congress,  233,  234;  and  its  re 
sults,  treated  ironically  by  R. 
in  imaginary  petition  of  Wey- 
ler,  264-266;  258. 

Speaker  of  the  House,  commit 
tees  always  appointed  by,  97, 
133;  power  of,  in  R.'s  time, 

163,  164,  190. 

Specie  payments,  preparation  for 
resumption  of,  47;  unsuccess 
ful  efforts  to  prevent  resump 
tion  of,  76;  effects  of  resump 
tion,  77. 

Springer,  William  M.,  R.'s  col 
loquies  with,  114,  115;  always 
calls  out  R.'s  sarcasm,  246;  50, 

164,  209,  211. 

"Stalwarts,"  in  N.Y.  Republi 
can  politics,  118. 

Stanley,  Arthur  P.,  16. 
Stenger,  William  S.,  49. 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  49. 
Stevenson,  Adlai  E.,  79. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  147. 
Stockton,  Cal..  R.  teaches  at, 
30. 


302 


INDEX 


Storey,  Moorfield,  letter  of,  to 
R.,  263. 

Strafford,  Earl  of,  133. 

Stuart,  S.  C.,  34. 

Sugar,  and  the  annexation  of 
Hawaii,  235. 

Sugar.     See  Free  list. 

Supreme  Court  of  U.S.,  sustains 
constitutionality  of  R.'s  ruling 
on  counting  a  quorum,  171. 

Surplus  revenue.    See  Revenue. 

Sybil,  U.S.  Steamer,  R.'s  whole 
naval  service  on,  30,  32. 

Symonds,  Joseph  W.,  R.'s  class 
mate,  quoted,  10;  25. 

Tariff,  revision  of,  tacked  to  bill 
to  repeal  internal  revenue 
taxes,  107  jf.;  R.  speaks  in 
Philadelphia  on  agitation  of, 
128;  reduction  of,  urged  by 
Cleveland  and  Carlisle  (1887), 
155;  main  subject  of  discus 
sion  in  election  of  1888,  161; 
reduction  of,  demanded  in 
Democratic  platform  of  1892, 
193;  effect  of  that  demand  on 
industrial  and  financial  con 
ditions,  193;  in  the  canvass  for 
the  nomination  in  1896,  221; 
sundry  remarks  of  R.  on,  241. 
And  see  Free  list,  Tariff  bills. 

Tariff  bills:  Of  1886  (Morrison), 
defeated  by  Randall  in  com 
bination  with  Republicans, 
154. 

Of  1887  (Mills),  in  the 
House,  155  ff.;  R.'s  closing 
speech  on,  156-60;  passes 
House,  160. 

Of  1894  (Wilson),  in  the 
House,  198  /.;  R.'s  closing 
speech  on,  199-205;  amended 


by  Senate,  205;  conference  re 
port  on,  ridiculed  by  R.,  207, 
208,  209;  passed  by  Congress, 
210. 

Of  1890  (McKinley),  passed 
by  51st  Congress,  175;  main 
cause  of  Democratic  victory 
in  Congressional  election  in 
1890,  180. 

Of  1897  (Dingley),  passed 
by  55th  Congress,  231,  232; 
range  of  duties  in,  232. 

Tariff  commission,  bill  to  create, 
supported  by  R.,  102. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  147. 

Territories,  Committee  on,  R.  a 
member  of,  50,  78. 

Thackeray,  William  M.,  147. 

Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  electoral  votes 
cast  for  (1876),  59;  his  claim 
supported  by  Butler,  61;  pro 
posed  purchase  of  electoral 
votes  for,  revealed  by  cipher 
telegrams,  65  jf . ;  his  responsi 
bility  for  activities  of  Pelton 
and  others,  66  jf.;  testifies  be 
fore  Potter  Committee,  70; 
R.'s  comments,  in  minority  re 
port,  on  his  connection  with 
cipher  telegrams,  71;  ab 
solved  by  majority  of  commit 
tee,  72;  44,  119. 

Townshend,  Richard  W.,  con 
troversy  with  R.,  126,  127; 
115. 

Treasury  of  U.S.,  and  the  Sher 
man  Silver-Purchase  Act,  192; 
critical  condition  of,  192,  214; 
proposed  measures  for  relief  of, 
215. 

Tucker,  J.  Randolph,  49,  110. 

Turner,  Henry  G.,  164,  169,  198. 

Twain,  Mark.   See  Clemens. 


INDEX 


303 


Upham,  Daniel  C.,  Professor  at 

Bowdoin,  17. 
Utah,  R.  on  contested  election 

of  delegate   to   47th   Congress 

from,  95,  96. 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  53,  55. 

Venezuela  boundary  question, 
Cleveland's  message  concern 
ing,  218-220;  257. 

Vermont,  breaks  solidity  of  New 
England  for  R.'s  nomination, 
223. 

Victoria,  Queen,  132. 

Wadsworth,  James  W.,  94. 

Wallace,  William  P.,  34. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  132. 

Ware,  Peter,  R.'s  ancestor,  2. 

Washington,  George,  53,  55,  257. 

Washington  Post,  277  n. 

Ways  and  Means  Committee, 
R.  becomes  a  member  of 
(1885),  140;  rooms  of,  R.'s 
favorite  resort  at  the  Capitol 
after  his  retirement,  268. 

Webb,  Nathan,  34. 

Weber,  E.  A.,  61. 

Wellington,  first  Duke  of,  124. 

Wentworth,  Thomas.  See  Straf- 
ford. 

Wesley,  John,  135. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Co., 
65. 

Weyler,  Nicolau  V.,  imaginary 


petition  of,  to  Congress,  264- 
266. 

Wheeler,  Joseph,  204,  266. 

William  III,  32. 

William  and  Mary  College,  bill 
for  relief  of,  opposed  by  R.,  52- 
56. 

Williams,  George  Fred,  129  n., 
184,  185. 

Williams,  John  Sharp,  quoted, 
on  R.  as  a  debater,  251. 

Wilson,  William  L.,  sponsor  for 
tariff  bill  of  1894,  198,  199; 
Cleveland's  letter  to,  206;  his 
speech  on  the  conference  re 
port,  208;  150,  215. 

Winthrop,  John,  2,  4. 

Woman  Suffrage,  R.  favors  reso 
lution  for  appointment  of  se 
lect  committee  on,  99,  100; 
R.'s  minority  report  in  favor 
of,  100-102. 

Women,  R.  on  the  status  and 
political  rights  of,  101,  102, 
242. 

Woods,  Leonard,  President  of 
Bowdoin  (1839-66),  his  career 
and  acquirements,  15-17. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  53. 

York,  Me.,  centennial  of,  1. 

York  County,  contest  between, 
and  Cumberland  County,  for 
Congressional  candidate,  40  ff., 
86. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S    .   A 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


NOV  8-1966 


56 


198° 


JUN  1  6  1380 


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